The Black Plague
by SilentWillow920
Summary: When there's no place left to go, when you're the last hope for the world, what do you do? Follow Sakina, Mirai Trunks's daughter, as she searches for herself and a new hope for the world. **Episode 1 is now complete!**
1. Episode 1: Prologue

_**Prologue**_

I walked tirelessly through the rubble that hid the black asphalt which used to be the streets of the greatest city on my world. I had no real aim at that time, so early in the morning that dark day. I lazily pushed back one purple lock of my once-shiny hair, now dirtied with the charcoal dust which was once the wooden supports to most of the buildings of the suburbs, now rubble, which I had slept among many nights before. As I walked, the chilly wind rustled the faded blue jacket which I wore and tugged lightly on the large, old sword which I kept in its scabbard at my back with a belt around my chest and down to my waist positioned as a sash. It also blew softly at my slightly larger-than-needed brown pants, the only kind I could get and up-keep in the times. As I wandered with no real purpose, memories from the life I knew before the second war flooded back to me. Memories from only a few months ago to 3 years. 

My name is Sakina Briefs, and I am the only daughter of Mirai Trunks and Felicity Smith. My mother died from diabetes when I was very young because there is not much medicine available to anyone of this day. I have my father's purple hair color and his blue eyes, along with most of his personality. When I was a child, my father out-grew his old blue jacket and gave it to me. When he thought I was old enough to handle it, my father also created a sword out of scrap metal with the aid of an energy beam. He had gotten to be quite an astounding metal artist, and the sword is very beautiful. Being only a quarter-Saiyin, I originally had a tail, but a childhood accident involving me dropping my sword on it caused the fact that I no-longer have one. I am now much more adept at wielding my sword.

When I was 11, my father and I were practicing energy beams and we had unleashed two large blasts when something strange happened. Apparently, beings from 3 other parallel dimensions had also unleashed blasts of the exact same power at the exact same moment on the exact same relative spot. This caused portals to be formed between my world and the 3 other worlds, connecting 4 universes total. From one of the worlds came the timeline that my father had created with his own sweat and blood, the timeline where his father still lived. From the second, there seemed to be a common knowledge of all the worlds, but there were no powers there besides an extensive knowledge of agriculture and machine work, a world rich in resources. From the last, strange and powerful creatures reigned, the most powerful of all was a black cat-like creature and its minions of black mice with electronic powers. It referred to itself as The Black Plague and to its minions as The Rodents. The moment the portals were opened, this creature was drawn through into my world. My father and I both recognized its power level to be 7 times our own combined, and were forced to flee. It then began its reign of destruction, but after only a little while, the Black Plague discovered the existence of the Dragon Balls and their purpose, and set out to the new Namekian planet (the only planet left with a working set) to retrieve them. The Black Plague there made one wish before destroying the Dragon and the Dragon Balls for fear that someone else would come along and wish him away. We were helpless to stop it. 

When the Black Plague came back to Earth, its power level had multiplied one thousand fold and my grandmother, Bulma, had begun to study it in the hope of discovering its strengths and weaknesses. She had apparently succeeded and had hidden her work in a secret laboratory. She had given my dad a coded message only moments before the Black Plague's minions found and killed her. Due to the sheer number of them, Dad's only option was to attempt escape and somehow decode the message. 

The Black Plague's reason for its hatred against all sentient life that had not pledged its allegiance to it was something to do with crimes committed against it in its own world. The species that the Black Plague referred to itself, its minions, and various creatures similar to itself as being was something like and from the way it seemed, the species of these powerful creatures contained many subspecies. The Black Plague itself was one of the subspecies called , and the Rodents were made up of and given genetic engineering to brand them with the Black Plague's emblem (a red eye with a needle drawn diagonally over it from the top right to the bottom left) and to color them black. 

My father and I hid for two years total together trying to survive while outside hundreds of people died per day as the Black Plague's minions spread through the worlds like wildfire. There were only a few thousand, but they could cause more damage than all the universes' past armies combined if they tried. The reason the Rodent's movement was so large in comparison to the progression of the death toll was because they always liked to with their victims before finally killing them. 

After being fed up with the reign of terror these creatures inflicted upon the world, my dad decided to continue training me in our world, hoping that the Black Plague and the creatures from its world wouldn't be able to sense and capture us as we had our training sessions. For the first few months, only the Black Plague stirred every time my dad powered up into SSJ form, and we could easily get away from it by escaping through one of the portals. The fact that energy can't be sensed through the portals had kept us alive that long. 

Then, disaster struck. My father and I had been training in a cave in our world when the Black Plague came through one of the portals into our world, immediately sensing and coming for us. I still remember the night as clearly as if it were happening this instant...

I screamed. The Black Plague! It's coming! I had been the first to sense it.

ARG! Can we not get even one moment of peace? Sakina! Grab your sword and let's go! Quick! Hurry! He ordered as he powered down from his SSJ form and into stealth mode. I had merely enough time to reach my sword and strap it on myself before the Black Plague arrived, backed up by hundreds of its minions. Its entrance was marked by a blast which opened the cave completely up, leaving not a wall left to see. Its minions had acquired Saiyin technology and now wore poorly fitted armor and scanners which seemed too large to fit on their 1-2 foot tall bodies. The Black Plague stared coldly at my father and I while a low laugh which sounded like a growl filled its throat, clearly audible to all life forms around. 

Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm... Two little mice hiding from the big, black cat. Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm... It chuckled. 

I took a sideways glance at my father. His fists were clenched along with his teeth, and he wore an expression of pure hatred. He was back to SSJ in an instant and ready to take the second level. I was terrified. I knew neither of us could defeat the Black Plague or even most of its minions before being crushed, neither could we escape if the Black Plague didn't want us to. 

I knew why my father hated this thing so much. The first war on this world had been versus two androids which went on a rampage and began to destroy everything my father, in his youth, held dear. He grew up in a world of fear, not knowing if he would live past the next two minutes, never knowing where his next meal would come from if it would come at all. I was privileged to grow up merely in the aftermath, in a world where civilization was being rebuilt. With the aid of a machine my grandmother had built, he traveled back in time before the androids were activated, before Goku had died from a fatal heart disease. He delivered the necessary medicine to save Goku, rightfully believing that his presence would take a large part in preventing the androids from achieving their rampageous state. The only problem is that by going back in time, he had not prevented his youth's events from happening, but only created an alternate universe where the events never existed. He still had to go back to his own time to destroy the plague of that time. He succeeded and began to help the world along the long road to recovery. During this time, he married and had me. Though my mother died very soon afterward from diabetes (a problem that anyone with Saiyin blood in their veins doesn't have to worry about), my father and I had gotten along fine. After the sudden discovery of my inheritance of the Saiyin strength, not just the tail, my father began to train me to be the next protector of Earth. The Black Plague reminded him all too sharply of the androids before my father had attained enough strength to defeat them. 

After a few tense moments, my father lashed out violently with everything he had at the monster, who dodged the blow as if dodging a clumsy mosquito. It then flicked my father almost lazily to the ground. Dad went SSJ2 and struck out with a series of physical and energy blows, each being dodged or absorbed by the Black Plague. All the while, I stood below, too terrified to move. My father's fight was pointless, futile. After becoming bored of playing with my father, the Black Plague seized him by the neck and sent an energy beam through his mid-section, just below his heart. This left a large, smoking hole straight through him and sent him crashing, convulsing to the ground right to the side of me. I cringed and a tear of suspended rage rolled across my down-turned cheek. I was shocked, but kneeled near him nonetheless, staring lovingly into his wide-open and tormented eyes. I held his head and upper body slightly off the ground in my arms, shaking violently from the mix of emotions I now held within me. He whispered to me through gasps while the Black Plague and its minions heartily laughed above.

he gasped, flinging his eyes shut and convulsing as a wave of intense pain overtook him.

I'm here, Dad. I calmly told him while tears welled up in my eyes. It was a false calm, and I knew that his shock-wide eyes were no longer seeing the world as all his senses were spent on alerting his brain to the intense pain which flew over him in waves.

L-listen. Y-you have to g-go. You're the l-last hope for the w-worlds. R-reach in my p-pocket- ARG! he screamed as another wave sent his sweating, bleeding face to turn over toward the ground. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, and I knew he wouldn't last much longer. He gathered himself enough to look at me again, his eyes unseeing, his body now beyond the pain. Take the paper from my pocket. Decode it and follow the instructions. Sakina, you must! I retrieved the paper. I would not disobey a great, dying man's last requests. Now go! He screamed, almost at the last of his breathing. Before... they... get... you... too... and with that, he let go of the last of his breath, closed his eyes, and went limp in my arms. I dropped him and stood up, backing off slowly as I shook my head and repeated the word over and over again, softly at first, but growing more violent by the second. I was in shock. I screamed, as I tore at my hair. This sent the Black Plague and its minions into a laughing fit, the sadistic worms. After tugging at my hair and achieving nothing but more hurt, I stared, wide-eyed, at my hands. They were covered with the still-warm and dripping blood of my father. I stared at them, shaking violently. I felt my father's pain, heard his thoughts, felt his despair. At that time, the world seemed to be spinning around me as I sank to my knees. My hair fell about my down-turned face as shock changed suddenly into rage. All that pain, all that suffering, exploded at once in a golden fireball of fury. My hair spiked up and changed to a golden color, a great wind rushed about me, and my eyes changed to a deep, mono-colored turquoise instead of their regular mottled blue. I had been pushed past the line into a Super Saiyin. I screamed in rage as the fireball exploded, vaporizing the first three fronts of the Black Plague's minions. Some people say that the first SSJ transformation of an individual is their most powerful jump of that level, and at this time, I believed it. I was at the first level, the first female SSJ. I stood in the air, staring at the Black Plague through eyes full of hatred, but a hatred not without intelligence. Though the SSJ form was powerful, the Black Plague held hundreds of times that power in a single one of its hands. 

Well well. It coldly laughed in its deep, devilish voice. Looks like the last of the mice has come out of hiding. What do you say we have a little fun with her, eh? It asked its minions. They, of course, cried out with glee. I had caused many deaths on their force with a single blast, and they wanted me to suffer. I was a pathetic, hated thing in their eyes. 

The Black Plague turned back to me with a smirk on its face, raised one hand, and began firing energy beams all around the now-open area, causing me to zip back and forth like a fly high on marijuana to avoid being vaporized myself. The Rodents were uproarious with the glee that comes from watching the last and only threat to their cause become a scared, chased toy.

Then I remembered suddenly my fathers orders, his last words. Now go! Before... they... get... you... too... I gritted my teeth, powering up for the next undertaking, and zipped off for the portals with everything I had. All my strength, all my emotion, all of my being was placed into that one attempt at escape. A few of the Rodents began to give chase, but the Black Plague stopped them, and in a voice louder than a nuclear explosion and icier than absolute zero, uttered the words which would haunt my memory for the rest of its existence: Let her go, for is it not more fun to prolong her suspense before finally whiping her from existence? Such a budding warrior deserves to live a while longer before we finally smash her. Though I was by then too far out of reach of their sound to hear, I knew that the Rodents had given up a cheer at that statement.

Since that day, I have survived alone on the streets of the four worlds, helping a few people along as well as I could, but mostly just keeping myself alive. I spend most of my time in stealth mode, keeping my energy as low as possible, but on occasion, I let loose a massive blast into the night sky of one of the worlds. All of my anger is put into those blasts, and they calm me for a while before I have to switch worlds to avoid being caught. The fireworks probably also give hope to the survivors of the world, though that wasn't their original purpose. They are my way of letting my old friends and neighbors know that I still exist. So far, it has been an entire year since my father's death, and I have made little progress in decoding the message that he left me. I am 14 now.

As I ambled pointlessly through the street that cold and windy morning, I completed a piece of poetry in my mind which had struck me first a week ago and had been pushing to surface as completed ever since. It was yet another way to alert the world, more secretly, of my existence, and to tell it that the hope my father had first granted to it had died within me. I spied a glinting piece of painted metal amidst a pile of ash, charcoal dust, and rubble which used to be a hospital. I decided to write it there...


	2. Episode 1: Chapter 1: The First Meeting

_**Chapter 1 - The First Meeting**__  
  
If you do not clearly see the phrase "To be continued..." at the bottom of this page, then the page hasn't loaded properly or completely._

With a scrap of painted metal from the rubble and the aid of a laser-like energy beam from my hand, I permanently etched the words that had been eating away at my heart for some time:

> I was off on the side,  
I was taking a ride,  
Hard way finding things out,  
Don't leave me empty inside.  
My world up-side-down,  
Turn me in-side-out,  
Find nothing' but pain where hope was  
  
Tired of pretender,  
Heart in a blender,  
Walking' round, nothing' left  
Beautiful, to see here.  
Searching' for a glint of hope,  
Through the rubble, charred and black.  
Still nothing' but pain where hope was.

I held the piece of metal out at arm's length to study my work. The still-smoking black letters seemed to fit on the rusted and slightly singed piece of iron which had been part of a hospital door, the other fragments blasted into pieces too small to be recognized. I sighed and laid my handiwork where, hopefully, someone else would read it and know that more than they were still alive. At least, I hoped that I would still be too by that time. Now stop thinking like that! I mentally slapped myself. You're a quarter Saiyin, and the sole daughter of Trunks! The blood of the royal Saiyin family flows through your veins! I smiled, my courage temporarily renewed. Then I stopped suddenly again. All of my ancestors had died by way of being defeated. King Vegita, my great-grandfather, Prince Vegita, my grandfather, and Trunks, my dad. How could I hope to avoid the same fate? I put a mental block on myself. Such thoughts only hurt, they never help. 

I retrieved a small, folded paper from my pocket, its edges frayed and slightly singed. I unfolded it. The lettering had run a bit from when it had gotten wet, but the doctor's handwriting was still clearly legible on the old, crisp paper. A few numbers and letters had been scrawled inside, separated into one to two digit sections by dashes. They were in a code. It read:

12  
11-1-13-B-18-1-1A-0-1-17-5-1C

B-E-F-3-B-0-15-18-F-0-15-9-D-5-15-0-1-E-4-0-4-16-3-B

The person who had given this to my father had intended it for his use, but now it was entrusted to me. This person had been a famous scientist and a known genius at computer hacking, none other than Bulma Briefs, my grandmother. She had given my father one clue to decoding it, a clue which he had never taken the time to share with me.

ARG! _DUMBASS QUARTER-SAIYIN!_ I screamed in fury as I struck the ground, creating a nice-sized hole and a small crack. If only I hadn't let my father die... I slumped down, crying, to rest my head on the pile of ash and rubble, finding by luck, half a torn pillow where I fell. Soon, I was asleep and dreams filled my sub-conscious mind.

The evening my dad lay dying in that cave, the Black Plague staring coldly upon him while he told me to take the paper and leave rushed back to me. This time, instead of a hole through him, the offending injury was merely a crushing blow to his back. As he lay paralyzed, something new exploded within me and allowed me to become something more, SSJ2. As it actually happened, I was merely able to pass into SSJ1, but in my dream, SSJ2 allowed me to escape with my father and out run all of the Rodents and even the Black Plague itself. Had my logical mind been aware at the time, I would have realized that SSJ1 can't be skipped and SSJ2 isn't that fast. Things in the dream happened fast now, my father healed with much help from the survivors that realized his potential, we trained together and had no more interruptions, and then we took on the Black Plague and won, together. The worlds were saved, life was restored, and peace finally reigned. A short flash later, we were waiting at a national peace awards conference to receive awards for our bravery and dedication to saving life. But as I watched my father walk confidently up the steps, something about him suddenly changed. His neatly pressed tuxedo suddenly changed into the charred and dirt clothes he wore on the street, and a bright flash of light blinded me for a second before I looked at him again. OH MY GOD! a lady screamed. SOMEONE SHOT HIM! It was true. My father turned around to face me, wearing the same shocked expression as the night the Black Plague took him down, and there was a gaping, smoking hole straight through his stomach. 

I sat up quickly, shocked awake. I was breathing heavily and sweating. I checked the position of the sun; I had been asleep for about 3 hours. It was now late morning. The reality of the world came flooding back to me, the destruction, the pain, and the impossible task which I now carried alone. 

A few distant explosions signaled the position of the Rodents which were now taking another sweep through the city to locate survivors and eliminate them, of course, not without torturing them first. I sensed them far off and going in the direction away from me. I would be safe here for now. Food and shelter were the only problems. I still had a slice of stale bread in my pocket, a rare find, but it wouldn't last me long at all. As society screeched to a halt and civilization crumbled to dust, mother nature kept her regular schedule of seasons and winter was fast approaching. I could always provide enough heat for myself, being a Saiyin, but food would be scarce. I could not fly around to avoid being detected, so that made matters much worse. So with an actual purpose to boast, I took off on foot towards the portals in hopes of finding something to eat. I sensed the Rodents still going in the opposite direction as I, going in the direction away from the portals. All the way I walked, I saw destruction of the worst kind. Dead, smoldering bodies littered the streets. Blood was everywhere. Ruins, rubble, the charred remains of Rembrants and Picassos (paintings), all were a part of the destruction. Wasn't it enough that this world had to be made an enemy of killer androids, but now must face a second holocaust against all life and order?

I stopped suddenly as I heard muffled voices from amidst a pile of rubble. I scanned it; yes, there was life there. I neared and heard a gasp not unlike that of a hunted animal in a burrow at the threat of impending death.

It's one of them! one of the children, a girl, cried in a whisper.

We're going to d-die! the second child, a boy, squeezed out through chattering teeth.

Hush, hush. An adult woman stifled them.

I turned toward the pile of rubble to study it. It was good sized, maybe a house had fallen there. There was mostly charred, loose timber to make up the bulk of it and a small pile of broken concrete and iron rods off to the right. There was a small path between the pile of concrete and the next pile of rubble to the right of it, and I began to walk carefully down it as not to trip on the various mangled metal supports and shapeless pieces of unknown substances. Upon reaching the end of the path, I was facing the first pile of rubble from a new angle and saw a small crawl hole with a pile of slightly charred sticks outside and to the left of it. It looked like there had originally been a fire there, but it had gone out. I peeked through the crawl hole and into a larger room-like cavern dug out of the rubble. Inside, two young children and a woman who looked to be around forty and probably was their mother cowered from me, the unknown terror from the street. The woman held the children in a tight embrace. I held out one hand to them and the woman opened a fearful eye. This scene was not new to me. I went through it each time I tried to help someone on the street. I reassured her in a quiet, soothing voice, trying my best to myself look calm. It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you. I tried to move closer, but my words had not reached them. I understood; there were many people out there who upon finding another person, would rob them of everything they had, kill them, and if hungry enough, resort to cannibalism. I had this trick tried on me once, and it, of course, had not succeeded. It was a terrible thing that so many people were reduced to such primitive measures. I moved my hand closer still, but it only succeeded at making the woman tighten her hold on the children and cower back further, far too terrified to move. They were all shivering not only from fear, but from the cold. Mid autumn has a tendency to nip even in late morning.

The young boy finally overcame his fear and struck out at me with everything he had repeatedly, trying to drive me out. His sister followed suit after a few tense moments. I didn't even feel the blows, but retreated anyway to draw them out. I then snatched the children into one arm and reached into my pocket with the other to bring out my food, a last resort in calming them down. Their mother, terrified into bravery at what I might do to her children, rushed out at me and began beating away with everything she had, which comparatively, wasn't much. I paid no attention and brought out the bread, tore it quickly into three pieces, and offered it to the children and their mother. Seeing this and realizing their mistake, they instantly stopped struggling and took the bread, downing it in seconds. They sat in a small circle outside the rubble house and I sat with them after a few seconds of indecision.

I'm sorry to have caused you to struggle like that. I meant no harm. I politely stated to them.

No, I'm sorry. The mother replied. We've been so h-hungry and so c-cold and so s-scared that we've been t-terrified of anything that d-doesn't run by q-quickly. W-we thought you w-were one of t-them. she managed to say through chattering teeth.

the young boy continued. W-we've been s-so scared since our f-fire went out. He indicated the crude pile of sticks.

I can help with that. I said, smiling, as I leaned over to the sticks, one hand outstretched. The amount of energy required to start a fire wouldn't even give a reading on the Rodent's scanners.

What are you g-going to do? Start it? Y-you don't h-have any m-matches! Y-you can't s-start a fire w-without matches! the little girl scolded me through her shivers.

I have a few tricks of my own. I told her, smiling warmly. Watch this, but don't get too close. You may get burned. I warned them while I gathered a tiny bit of energy into my out-stretched hand and focused it on the logs, setting them instantly ablaze. The flames leaped up high the first instant, swallowing my hand and therefore cleaning the dirt from it, and then died back to burn peacefully. There you go! I said as I stood up to study my work. The children's hearts shone through their eyes as they and their mother came over and warmed themselves by the fire. 

Wow! Just like daddy used to do! the little boy shouted. I was confused by that statement. All the pure blooded humans that I knew were unable to do anything like that, as they had a more difficult time locating the source of their ki. 

Yeah, only he usually made a big bang and a bright flash of light to go along with it. the girl stated matter-of-factly.

Mmhmm. And just like Dianna too! Don't you remember when big sis first tried? the boy  
giggled.

Hehe! She blew up half the house! the two children broke into laughter, obviously remembering a very funny moment.

Their mother noticed my puzzled expression and was about to speak when I asked her instead.

What is their father's name? I inquired.

she sighed. I recognized the name from something my father told me long ago, though I couldn't quite place it at the moment... He is my husband, as I'm sure you can guess. We're not from this world. We're from, as I understand, and alternate time line of it. Goten explained to me once about how his father, Goku, fought alongside with someone from the future, as I understand, from this very time line. I can't quite remember the name, but I know it was the same thing as his best friend...

I added for her. I now remembered where I had heard it from. My father told me all about the second time line when I was little. It was sort of a family history lesson.

Yes! That's it! How did you know? she asked, now even intrigued by my presence. 

He was my father. I told her as I winced and clenched my fists, fighting back tears. She saw my pained expression and could guess its meaning: my father no longer lived. I sat down with them by the fire, even though I didn't need the warmth as my jacket kept me safe from the cold and my Saiyin metabolism would keep me warm even without it. After a few minutes of silence other than the distant explosions caused by the Rodents and the laughter of the children in their memories, I spoke again. So, where is Goten now? And your daughter, Dianna?

She was silent for a moment before speaking. Goten was killed only a week after our worlds attained portals between them while trying to protect us from the Black Plague. Another potential fighter gone. Great. These two children really aren't ours, we adopted them because we wanted more children, but not the struggle that came with Dianna. 

Of course. Saiyin children are difficult for an adult Saiyin to keep under control, but it is nearly impossible for a human to restrain one when he or she doesn't want to be restrained. So, where is Dianna? I asked again.

Out searching for food. I think she flew that way. she pointed toward the direction of the portals, the direction I had been heading. That was a bad thing, her flying there. The mechanics that make it possible for people to fly is the fact that ki can be manipulated in a strange fashion. When someone is flying, they are actually constantly firing ki below them and in the opposite direction that they are going. Basically, they are surfing atop a wave of ki. Because it takes so much to be able to control flight, the Rodent's scanners would pick it up almost right away. She went to one of the other worlds. I just hope none of the bad guys find her. she worried. I then remembered and was reassured by one fact: the Black Plague would already have come for her if it felt she was a threat or thought she was me. This girl must not have reached SSJ yet, so she wasn't a danger to the Black Plague. But she should be back within the next hour or so, and probably with a lot of food. You Saiyins sure eat a lot. I just hope she brings enough for you...

I smiled as my rumbling stomach reminded me of the food requirements of even a quarter-Saiyin. How about the Trunks of your world? The other Z fighters? Are they still alive? I asked. I needed to know if the same allies that my father fought with were still available as help to me.

Vegita and Gohan are still alive. Unfortunately, Gohan isn't much help because he was crippled and paralyzed below his neck after the last fight he was in. He can still use certain energy beams and move around by flying, but he can't walk or use his arms. He and Vegita are hiding below ground in a bomb shelter in my world. Goku died in a shuttle crash before the Black Plague arrived. Bra was caught and killed by the Black Plague's minions only days after the portals formed. We all tried to help her, but couldn't. If we would have tried more, we would have been killed too. Vegita even joined in that one, but he wasn't much help. It was horrible, but there was nothing we could do. Trunks died mysteriously only last year. We were talking, and then he just suddenly fell over and died. We couldn't figure out the cause. It was strange. Bulma went in a similar fashion. She died suddenly only a few months after the Black Plague came over. No one knows what happened. Everyone else had died peacefully of old age a long time before the Black Plague came. None of them ever saw what the world had become, and I'm glad of it. She explained.

Hmm. My father and grandmother died at about the same time as their counterparts from your world did. Do you think that the counterparts of the two worlds could share a bond in their lives now that the worlds are united? I asked. When dealing with time-space, there are no crazy ideas.

Perhaps. It would certainly be the most logical answer, though I'm no professor. she contemplated. 

Did Trunks have a daughter? I needed to know if I had a counterpart too now. 

Of course, but only one, and my, was she ever a little brat! Well, that was all until her training began after they discovered that she inherited the Saiyin strength and not just the tail. Now she's a bit more mature, but not much, and a pretty good fighter, though she's really cocky at times. She hasn't reached SSJ yet either. Right now, she's the one taking care of and protecting Vegita and Gohan. Her name is Sakina. She's Dianna's best friend and if you're really her counterpart, I'll have to guess that you're Sakina too. She estimated of me.

Of course. Sakina is my name. I must pay my counterpart, Vegita, and Gohan a visit sometime. That is, if we all survive long enough for me to get over there. I giggled. This changed everything. Now, if the counterparts of the two worlds really did have a connection, both of us were in danger. If I would die in a fight or for any other reason, then she would also. If she would die for any reason, so would I. No warning, no preparation time. One moment on the battle field, the next, who knows where? After a few moments of thoughtful silence, I spoke once again and changed the subject. So, you haven't told me your names yet. Who are these cute little children? I asked.

This is Max and this is Sarah. she told me, indicating the young boy and girl respectively. And I'm Katrine. No last name, last names don't matter anymore anyway. she sighed, obviously disappointed at the fact she had just admitted.

Well, its nice to meet you. You know, now that I know there are other Saiyins out there, even quarter-Saiyins, I know the world has a chance. All the worlds, but that is, you would need to give your daughter permission to help. Then, if you would, we could possibly get you somewhere safe and spend a day or two in your Room of Spirit and Time. My father explained to me how it works. He also explained the techniques used in the Cell Games before he went back to this time, though I never mastered most of them. I told her. I was now getting excited for I had a chance, in the future, to avenge my father's death.

Yes, you three girls, if you decide to take the other Sakina along, could have a chance, but... She studied me carefully. Where's your tail? Your counterpart would be able to change into a giant golden ape and get hundreds of times stronger if she ever was angered enough, Vegita explained it to me, but only if she kept her Saiyin tail. Dianna has that potential too, if she ever masters the technique, but only if she keeps her tail. Vegita had obviously not explained the SSJ form to Katrine completely.

A childhood accident; I was practicing with my sword and dropped it behind me. My tail was sliced clean off my back. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but I guess I'm better off without it. Without it comes and SSJ transformation that is much stronger and much easier to control, as I understand from what my father explained to me. I have already reached SSJ. The two girls, Dianna and my counterpart, must not have had a large enough shock in their lives to push them over the line. It takes a tremendous amount of rage for someone to be pushed into SSJ. My moment of rage came the time of my father's death, so he never saw it. I told her, my head down, remembering the instant. My SSJ transformation was the only good thing that has come out of this war so far. If we're going to make Dianna and my counterpart SSJ, then we're going to need to make them VERY mad. If they're anything like me, it'll take quite a shock. That will be hard to stage, but if we really try, we may be able to do it. I thought out loud. It was a serious plan. If we were going to be anything but little, chased worms, the two other girls would need to reach SSJ and be able to control it.

You speak like such and adult and you're what, only 14? Children should be allowed to grow up gradually, not forced to all at once. she told me with tears lining her eyes.

It's ok. If we win this thing and I'm the only one to be cheated out of my childhood, then all the better. If only a few people die for the sake of millions, then what can be better than that? it was a rhetorical question, and I honestly believed it. After 3 years of avoiding death narrowly every day, I had become used to the fact that I may die in the next two minutes. Katrine thought differently.

There are five people with Saiyin blood in their veins left, two of which will be no help. If you die, from what we figure, the Sakina of my world dies too. That's two potential fighters gone. If Dianna is then left all alone and she can't succeed, then we have no chance left. Even if you somehow end up destroying the Black Plague beforehand, we're still left helpless against any future attacks. she yelled at me, disgusted with my selfless attitude. She was right. I smiled after a few moments of contemplation and looked at her worried expression. Right now, you three are our only hope. It's ok to be a little selfish with yourself when your entire attack force numbers three. Don't go on any suicide missions yet; we need you. She told me sincerely.

I thought a while more. Gee, I guess she really did know what was going on. I felt stupid for thinking that we could do it without any one of us. Well, let's all just save our energy. You can take a nap and I'll keep watch. I offered them. They looked like they had been sleepless many previous nights in a row, and graciously accepted. They were asleep within moments. I shifted my gaze toward the burning horizon. The sun was high in the sky and shadows were non-existent.

Our little chat had provided me with some much-needed information and some desperately-needed hope. I was glad that I had stopped to help them. Then I thought of the poem I had written earlier. My thrice-mentioning of the word would betray my identity to anyone of either world where Saiyins existed, for it is common knowledge that the time machine which my dad used to create the second time line had but one meaningful word etched upon it: .

It was my father's sweat and blood which had helped to create the second world, the second time line, and now it was up to me to protect not only that one and mine, but two other worlds as well. 

I concentrated on conserving my energy and only sensing the ki around me. I could easily detect the Black Plague on the other side of this world. It was thousands of times more powerful than me at my highest point. I could also sense the waved of Rodents as they swept over the city, still going in the direction away from me. Outside a few miles, I could no longer sense anything. A few miles was the limit to my abilities. I tracked the Rodents for a while before sensing a new power appearing from the portals. Since energy can't be sensed through the portals and I would have known if it had come from somewhere behind the portals, I made a correct guess that this power had come through one of the portals. The fact that energy can't be sensed through the portals has saved my life many times. I can keep my energy signature so low that no scouter or other being could sense it as being more than a frog, but that does little good when the Rodents have me in their sight. 

The new strong power was nearing my position at a fast pace, taking no care to hide its energy. I could already guess who it was: Dianna. She was flying, alright. I caught sight of her a few moments later. She wore traditional Saiyin armor and her tail flapped lazily behind her as she flew surrounded by an almost transparent ball of energy. Her hair was black and very messy, almost exactly the same style as was in a picture of Goku that my father had shown me. She looked as if she had inherited all of the physical Saiyin attributes, so I could guess that her eyes were black too. She carried in her arms a good-sized sack which probably contained food. From the size, it looked like enough for all of us. She was carefully watching the ground below her for signs of the Rodents before beginning to lower her altitude and come in for a landing. I ran my hand back through my hair to discover it completely blackened by charcoal dust and ashes. My natural purple had been completely smoked out, and I could guess that my normal skin color was now also blackened from the dust. I didn't look like myself. I wiped my hand on my dirty pants and stood up to greet Dianna. I walked toward the spot that she looked like she would land on and held my hand out. As she landed and looked behind me to her sleeping family, a horrified look came over her face. My well-prepared friendly greeting had just fallen to pieces.

Mom! Max! Sarah! she yelled and then turned to me. _What did you do to them!?!?!?_ she demanded, fists clenched, back arched, and with a furious look on her face. Her power level spiked and her tail flicked wildly about. 

I said as calmly as I could. They're just sleeping. I offered them my last bit of food and some rest, and they accepted. Just chill. I lowered my hand to place it good-naturedly on my hip. To her, this looked like I was getting ready to pull out a gun.

_YOU LIE!!!!_ She screamed as her white fireball reappeared. She looked almost ready to go SSJ. Unfortunately, I doubted I could handle another SSJ, especially the golden ape form, even with all my training. I had planned to push her over the line, but not like this with the Black Plague and its Rodents ready to pounce. I decided to pull a risky maneuver. I quickly went SSJ myself. All of the dirt and charcoal dust burned away, probably a hellish sight, and left me glowing, clean skinned, with my hair spiky and blonde, and with a golden fireball of energy surrounding me. This shocked Dianna enough for me to walk over to her mom and attempt to wake her up. As I got within an inch of her, Dianna's shock wore off and she jumped at me, tackling me to the ground because I was not prepared to meet her blow. 

I don't care is you're stronger than me! I'm going to kill you for what you did to my family! she screamed. She thought that I had killed her family, a small case of miscommunication. She proceeded to punch and kick me for all she was worth, and I allowed it without resistance. I feared that any retaliation on my part would cause her to go SSJ, and then she would fight to the death. With all the noise, her family woke up to discover her seemingly putting the beat-down on me.

Dianna! What are you doing? her mother screamed, shocking Dianna enough to make her stop hitting me for a few moments.

But... I... I thought... Dianna stammered as she stood up holding me by my jacket's collar, confused, with one fist slightly raised and still ready to be released into my face. She was floating slightly above the ground and I hung loosely from her grip, making no attempt to free myself.

I powered down into stealth mode, releasing my hair back into a soft cascade of lavender and concentrated on sensing the Rodents as they moved through the city. They were still causing explosions, but faster than before. They had definitely picked up on me and were hurrying to get their job done so they could check this place out. Dianna's and my few seconds of had aroused them. They knew it was me that had appeared on their readouts. They would want to check this place out within the next few hours. Meanwhile, Katrine continued scolding the confused Dianna.

This kind young fighter extended her hand in generosity toward us, _and this is the thanks you give her?!?!_ Katrine screamed.

Dianna was shocked, her tail curled nervously around her waist. I decided to speak, my true appearance now showing after the fire bath I had taken in my own pent-up energy. It's ok. I understand, and I'm not very hurt anyway. Besides, she couldn't have known. If I'd been in the same situation, I'm sure that I'd have done the same thing. I smiled sincerely as I brushed my hair out of my eyes with one hand.

Dianna's gaze shifted to me and grew even more shocked. But, you're Sakina! You should be taking care of Vegita and Gohan! What are you doing here? she demanded.

I shook my head and explained the situation. Yes, I am Sakina, but I'm not the Sakina that you are thinking of. I am basically your best friend's counterpart from this world.

But... How is that possible? she asked, now even more confused.

My father is, as you call him, Mirai Trunks. He is the time traveler that helped to create the time line you live in. I am his daughter. Look, I can't really explain it. I'm no professor of physics. I don't know much more than you do, so this is the best explanation I can give you right now. I'm sorry for the confusion I caused, but right now, we have bigger problems. I'm not going to hurt you, so you can put me down. I waited patiently with my arms crossed. She set me down and then landed on the ground herself.

she said sheepishly. She seemed to accept my explanation for all it was worth. 

I rubbed the back of my neck and backed away slightly before continuing. Your mother already explained the situation with your world to me.

she seemed to calm down. Being Sakina's counterpart would explain why you don't have a tail. You're a quarter-Saiyin, right? Hmmm. she thought about that for a while. So, you're already an SSJ. Vegita told me about that kind of transformation, but I never thought I'd see it for myself. He never told Mom. Since you already gave my family a bit of an appetizer, why don't you join us for lunch? I haven't been able to talk to another Saiyin since Vegita, Gohan, and my best friend went into hiding. I brought enough food to feed another Saiyin. It was supposed to last my family and me another day, but it would be put to better use with you. she held out her hand for me to shake.

I took her hand and shook it. Sure, I'll join you. But you know, now that we had that little sparring session, the Rodents will be here before the day is out, probably within the next two hours, possibly only one, or even the Black Plague itself. They've sort of been after me. You know, you really should keep your power level lower. The Rodent's scouters will pick up on it and they'll be here in no-time. I lectured her.

I would if I could, but there's been no one to teach me how. Goku died before my training began. she told me as she sat down and dished out the contents of her sac. 

My father taught me. If I try, I can keep the energy profile equivalent to that of a frog, but it took me a long time to catch on. we were being surprisingly calm considering the fact that we now held the fate of the worlds in our hands, though the full realization had not yet sunk in. Katrine, Max, and Sarah were at a loss for what we were discussing.

Though the food amounted to little more than some wild fruit and eatable sprouts, it was food. The only places where food still existed were in the uninhabited wilderness of the worlds, in the various small wilderness settlements too tiny to be of much interest to the Black Plague, and at the Black Plague's home base in this world where food was grown and hoarded to feed its military. I finished a rare find, an apple, and saved the seeds by storing them in the front pocket on my jacket. I always saved seeds because they may be of some use someday. 

We'll have to move out soon. To be safe, probably within the next half hour. I told Dianna after almost 15 minutes of slow eating. I was almost done too.

Dianna agreed with me. You know, you look, sound, and eat just like my best friend, but it's so weird because you don't act like her at all. Dianna laughed after realizing the pure insanity of the situation.

How does she act? I asked in my version of curious detachment.

Well, she's really immature. She acts a lot like how my dad and her dad used to when they were kids. She's really funny and almost never serious. She has almost nothing for common sense. She's somewhat selfish and is always making excuses, but she's my best friend. That's why it's so weird. You're so grown up and she's just... not. She's a good karate fighter and knows how to fly, but neither of us has reached SSJ yet like you have. she giggled again. What about that sword you tote around? And what's up with that faded jacket you wear? she wanted to know me better, see where she stood in the new scheme of things. I couldn't blame her.

They're both the only things I have left of my father. He made this sword for me and this jacket was his when he went back in time to create that time line of yours. I told her. She was satisfied for the moment as she finished the last of her meal. I also finished mine. After a few quiet moments, I stood up, brushed myself off, and faced the direction of the portals. I sensed the Rodents coming closer, and various explosions betrayed their position further. Don't you sense them coming? I asked Dianna. My father trained me rigorously in all of the forms of a Saiyin's abilities that he himself understood, but especially in sensing ki.

Actually, I can only clearly sense them when they expend large amounts of energy, and especially when they make explosions. she sheepishly admitted. How aware _are_ you to all these things?

Not very, in respect to how your uncle and grandfather were at the time of the Cell Games. Of course, they were SSJ2 at the time, but still, not very. I explained. I was trying to be modest, and what I said was true.

Dianna lowered her head in thought for a moment before standing with me with her back to her family. Her tail flicked around nervously. Mom, Max, Sarah, we're going to have to move out now. she told them, still with her back to them. Then she turned to me. Where do you suggest we go? she asked.

I seriously don't know. For this past year, I've basically only taken care of myself. I admitted. It seems as though most of the Black Plague's troops are in this world, so why don't we try our luck in your world? What do you think?

Actually, I was thinking that too. Mom? We're all going to go back to our world, Kay? Dianna told Katrine.

Suddenly, a terrible realization caught hold of me and I double checked the Rodent's position to be sure. They had finished their sweep through the city and were now coming in far to fast for us to make it far enough before they reached us. They were no-longer causing explosions, but instead only making an effort to move as quickly as possible toward our current position. Dianna wouldn't sense them. Dianna? The Rodents are coming too fast. I told my new-found friend and ally with a note of urgency to my voice. We need to go now and we need to fly, preferably _very_ fast. Katrine, I'll carry you. Dianna, do you mind carrying your little brother and sister? the orders came out easily considering I had been a complete loner for the past year.

No problem. Max! Sarah! Time for some airplane action! she told them in a sing-song voice. Max and Sarah cheered. As kids, they didn't recognize the real danger they were in. Dianna took them on her back and used her tail to secure them both in place.

We'll need to stay close to the ground, even better would be following the telephone wires. Through all the destruction, most of the telephone wires still stood and continued their function. They delivered electricity to the various outposts of the Rodents. The electricity will cause interference with the Rodents' scouters. Let's go! I said as I kicked off, carrying Katrine. I took off swiftly with Dianna following close behind. All of my concentration was spent reducing my energy output while still allowing enough to fly at the high speed required while being careful not to hit anything as we flew only a few feet off the ground. Left, right, turn sharply to avoid a slab of concrete jutting out from the ground, up, under... Not a moment too soon, Dianna and I reached the portals and landed, letting our slightly disoriented passengers down to walk on rubbery legs. At that very moment, a gigantic explosion from the area we had just left rocked the earth under our feet. I sighed from relief at our escape, not so narrow as some, and spoke the famous last words of so many people before me. Well, this is it then, isn't it? Let's go through. I took one long last look at the burning horizon of my home world before stepping with Dianna's family through the portal to their world. Traveling between dimensions is a risky and painful thing and I never looked forward to it, but this time would prove to be among of the worst of my travel experiences. The worst was yet to come, but this time would definitely not be fun.

_To be continued..._


	3. Episode 1: Chapter 2: The Dart

_**Chapter 2 - The Dart**_

_If you do not clearly see the phrase "To be continued..." at the bottom of this page, then the page hasn't loaded properly or completely._

The text in olive is a 3rd person narative which Sakina knows nothing about. It's kinda like my way of explaining what happens outside of what Sakina sees. I will be using a lot of this in the chapters to come, so don't just forget about it after this chapter! 

_"Pick your battles big enough to win, small enough to matter." - Source unknown (so I can't remember! Sue me! ...Uh, on second thought, don't.)_

Every time I go through the portals, I take the chance that I might run into one of the Black Plague's minions or even the Black Plague himself since energy can't be sensed crossing from either side. To top it all off, the experience itself if not one which I would want to have every day. 

First comes a sharp feeling of falling or rising coupled by a blinding flash of light that sends the traveler down something which seems like a long tube. The appears like it is lit up by a constantly shifting mass of blue and green light. Then comes a sense of complete disorientation as the traveler is spun around so fast that normal people become more than nauseated. At this point, any attempt to stop the spinning would result on the perpetrator being thrust into a dimension unknown. I have only witnessed this scene once and it is enough to deter me from attempting it. After spinning for a while, the traveler will usually get used to the sensation and it will seem like he or she is standing still as long as that person doesn't open his or her eyes. Any vocalizations within this point sound flat and meaningless as if there is nothing there to carry the vibration even though the air still exists. Then, a terrible, gut-wrenching feeling jerks all of the person's senses at once as all directions change instantly and the spinning stops suddenly. Finally, the traveler arrives in the new world, spit out of the portal like a piece of old chewing gum. Each time, the person will land on the ground dizzy, disoriented, and utterly helpless. When I go through, it takes me almost a minute to reorient myself, a minute where I am left totally defenseless to whatever is on the other side. Like I said, it's not something I would want to go through every day.

Today was no different than any other. The bright light, spinning, nausea, disorientation, and finally the rough landing all made themselves very real on this day.

When I was spit out of the portal, I felt a sharp smack on my forehead as if I had hit something extremely hard. Everything in my sight was a blur, I had no clue where the ground was, and the throbbing pain on my forehead didn't help one bit. Jeez! It's really hard to get used to that.... I mumbled, though it must have sounded like a foreign language to anyone who heard me. I located the ground, tried to push myself up, but was overcome by dizziness and fell over again with an Anyone who has just come out of the portals (besides the Black Plague for some reason) is always a comical sight to see.

Dianna called. In my disoriented state, I could barely tell what she was saying let alone if it contained laughter, warning, or a scolding thought. Dianna had been the first one through the portal and I was the last, so her minute was probably already almost up. 

I managed to squeeze out through my nausea. I'm sure it didn't sound anything like , more like . 

I shut my eyes to stop the image from spinning and making me dizzier and groaned. Things were slowly getting better and I could now detect sound clearly. I placed my hands over my face and pressed down to stop the pain on my forehead. I had probably hit a rock again. 

Dianna called again. This time, I could detect the worry in her voice.

I growled through my hands.

she half stuttered, half gasped. It was something bad, but I couldn't do anything about it at the moment.

Dianna, I can't do anything right now. I still feel like throwing up. I groaned, the sound muffled by my hands while I massaged my throbbing forehead. I gave up after a few more seconds and lay sprawled out on my back facing what I believed to be the sky. I opened my eyes; the entire thing was blurry and still spinning. I breathed deeply and sighed the air out.

Over to my left I heard the sounds associated with a fight. Oh, shit. I thought. What's going on now?

Sakina! MOVE!! Dianna screamed a second later. I rolled over on my stomach while my whole body shrieked in protest, therefore, I just barely dodged a crushing blow delivered to where my head had been a moment earlier. 

I growled as I began to struggle to get to my feet. This is not going to be a good day... halfway through my struggle, I felt a sharp bite in my back. My hand whipped back there in an instant causing me to lose my balance and fall back on my face. My fingers brushed up against something feathery and soft connected to a short shaft. I yanked it out and winced in pain. It was at that time that my ki-sensing ability kicked back in. Behind me, a particularly small Rodent stood, probably not more than a month old. The thing I had pulled from my back was a dart, probably tipped in poison as otherwise it would be pointless of them to shoot me with it. I already was beginning to feel a searing, white-hot pain shoot up my back all around the entrance area. I put the dart in my jacket's front pocket, its only pocket, and sighed. My sense of balance more-or-less returned and I stood up. Until I was completely oriented again, I wouldn't be able to go SSJ. Since my eyes were still floating around, I would have to rely on my ki sense to tell me what was going on. It was a small band of Rodents that had jumped us; I counted 12. Two of them were picking on Max and Sarah and Katrine was fighting and losing to two herself. Dianna was working on blasting 6 of them and was holding her own in doing so. That left me with the runt and the one with the nasty footwork who now stood off to my left side, readying for another attack. These Rodents had obviously not been in any of the groups that had met me before or they would have all tackled me at once to bring me out of commission. 

I took a fighting pose, ignoring the creeping back pain. Dammit, I hoped the suspected poison wasn't fast-acting! There was a sudden movement to my left. I brought my arms into a defensive position thereby catching and deflecting a nasty kick from the larger Rodent. My opponent was stunned, and I used this moment of confusion to deliver a blow of my own. Deprived of its defenses, even though the punch half-missed, the little animal took heavy damage. The 2-foot-tall, long-tailed, beady-eyed creature promptly reconsidered me as a tough opponent and struck again. This time, my gut took the blow. At that instant, my sight fully returned. I staggered back a bit, caught my breath, and floated up a way. There, I powered up to SSJ, hoping that no other bands of Rodents were near enough to notice, and stretched my hands toward the Rodents that had been my opponents, palms out.

I was going to use an attack that my father had learned by witnessing Goku as he used it during the Cell Games. I shouted as I began to gather energy into my hands. I continued. the ball of energy flickered and appeared in my palms before beginning to grow at a rapid pace. the Rodents tried to use their electric bolts to reach me where their fists could not, but I was up too high even for that. I concluded as I fired the large ball of energy in the form of a beam toward the Rodents. They were disintegrated from existence as soon as the blast overtook them. 

Dianna had already defeated five of her opponents and was working on the last and strongest one full power now. I flew over to Katrine, snatched her two assailants up into the air with one arm, and delivered another blast to them, instantly defeating them. They weren't very strong. Katrine then began to fight the small Rodent which was hurting Sarah and Dianna, who defeated her last opponent, began to walk over to the other Rodent which was apparently the boss of the group; his power level was highly apparent in my senses like a match when the flame is at my fingertips. He was standing on his tail and slapping Sarah around continuously while she cried. As Dianna approached with a furious look on her face, the , as I knew the subspecies to be called, dropped Sarah to face this new and more exciting opponent. Katrine defeated the last remaining , as her opponent's subspecies was known. Dianna stopped about 12 feet from the Rodent and they both sized each other up. A white fireball appeared around Dianna and the Rodent took a scouter reading. After a few seconds, the mechanical device beeped and the Rodent laughed.

Then, he spoke. Apparently, this was a rare feat for the older members of the Black Plague's force of minions, but this skill had become mandatory for the younger soldiers. Your power level is less than one-twentieth of mine! Hahaha! he laughed. Dianna flared, gritting her teeth. Her tail flicked angrily back and forth. I see. You must be of that dying race, the Saiyins. My master has already killed many of you; he made it seem so easy too. I've heard from him that two still exist that we know of. One of them was let go for a future battle. He nodded upward toward where I floated above them. That must be her; I vaguely recognize her from my master's description. The purple locks when she's calm or slightly miffed, the yellow spikes and energy oval when she's angry. That is how it works, am I right? he waited for a while and upon receiving no answer from either of us, continued himself. The poison that my smallest in-training private delivered to her would kill her within a few hours if she was a normal human, but I'll give her maybe three days to live, two to be active, just because she's special. he smirked at the last word. Dianna's fireball flared even more and mine grew slightly. This guy was beginning to get me POed. As I am sure you don't already know, I am Admiral Chu, the highest commander of the Rodent Army. Yes, we stole our ranking system from the Navy of one of the other worlds, but it does come in quite handy. My only master is the Black Plague himself, and he would hate me to pieces if I shredded his chew toy before he got a crack at her. he shook his head slightly to indicate me. My lip curled into a snarl and my power level rose about 100 points. The war was almost over before it began. Unless I could find an antidote for the poison... we would be down not just one, but two fighters as my counterpart would also die. The countdown till crunch time began roughly at noon. He floated up a little bit, shocking both Dianna and I a few points down our power levels. Ah, you see, I have learned how to use electromagnetic energy fields to move around in the air as you do. Quite handy, if I do say so myself. I clenched my fists and snarled even more, therefore unintentionally raising my power level again. He shifted to face me more fully. I see that a Saiyin's anger is the key tool in releasing their power. Quite intriguing, actually. If there weren't so few of you left, I'd want to do a study on your abilities. he took a scouter reading of me. he shrieked when the scouter finally beeped. You are indeed a worthy opponent, only around 100,000 points below my power level! Truly extraordinary! I am in the multiple-millions, as I am sure you can sense. Oh well. I have orders not to kill you, so I'll have to settle with destroying these four in compensation for what you did to my troops-

No you won't!!! I screamed as I flew with most of my speed at the 3-and-a-half-foot-tall monster, catching him off-guard and firing a punch through his armor that sent him reeling into the ground, creating a nice crater. I rested in my new position for a second or two before he got to his feet and continued to talk, spitting to his side. 

Hmmm. I must admit, that was a nice punch. It did a bit of damage. Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.... But if you'll excuse me, he turned to Dianna who was now almost growling in suppressed rage. I have some business to take care of. he flew full speed at Dianna, a speed that I could barely track let-alone see or counter for her, and kicked her face aside while delivering a powerful blast of electricity to her. Dianna fell over, shocked and with her hair smoking. The Rodent landed next to her, laughing. Max broke into a temper-tantrum and rushed to the Rodent to pummel it with plenty of ineffective blows.

You leave my sister alone, you big bully! he yelled, crying.

The Rodent gleefully smiled, flicked him back with one finger, and turned to where he landed. At the same moment he turned, Sarah ran to the Rodent, followed closely by Katrine, in hopes that she could succeed where her brother could not. When they got within two feet of the creature, they stopped suddenly as if they had run into a brick wall. Admiral Chu was using an electromagnetic field to stop them. He moved a finger and the two girls went flying back in Max's direction. Katrine flew farther than Sarah and struck a wedge of concrete. Dianna overcame her shock and rushed at him, but he dodged her and sent another lighting bolt through her system. The Rodent's full attention was on the four people below me, so I flew higher and began to charge up for another energy attack.

I whispered, positioning myself in the same pose I had held the last time I used the attack. the Rodent kicked Dianna's already-hurting stomach and she winced, giving almost no resistance as her energy was almost all drained. he kicked her again and she threw up. he laughed and turned to walk over to where Max and Sarah landed. The ball of energy was absolutely huge before me. I just hoped his scouter didn't alert him to it. I shouted as I released it. The energy ball impacted with a devastating effect. Katrine and the kids were pushed back to the edge of a giant pile of rubble, Dianna tumbled over the edge and to the other side where she was sheltered from the debris that flew out her way, and various rocks and other fragments of rubble flew into the portals. I just hoped that they didn't hit any innocent people on the other side. When the explosion was over, the dust cloud that remained covered everything except for the outside ring where Katrine and her kids now were and the sheltered ditch that contained Dianna. I was panting from the effort put into that Kamehameha and floated down toward Dianna after a few seconds to see how she was doing. Hey girl. I spoke softly as not to hurt her ears. Are you ok?

I'm just fine. she tried to get up, but couldn't and fell again. Ok, so maybe that creep took a few bites out of me. No big deal. I'll be good enough to fly again in about a minute. Just let me rest. Can you check on Mom, Max, and Sarah for me? I need to know if they're alright. she winked at me and gave me a thumbs up. I knew she would be alright.

I kicked off the ground, now partially rested, and flew around the dust cloud to land by the kids. They were standing up and apparently ok. Katrine was walking slowly toward where I now was. Everyone surprisingly suffered only minor injuries. I was still in the SSJ form. 

Is Dianna ok? were the first words out of Katrine's mouth a few minutes later when she finally reached us. 

Yeah, she's alright. I was just over there. I rubbed my stinging back, noticing for the first time just how much it hurt. 

What about that poison? Katrine continued, now worried about me since her daughter was reportedly ok. What are we going to do?

I figure that if your Gohan is still anything like what my father displayed him to be, a great scholar and all in the realm of biology and chemistry, he'll be able to figure out an antidote. I sounded sure of myself, though the truth was I doubted my would work. Well, I'm going to go tell Dianna that you're all ok. I told them after a few more minutes of thoughtful silence. The dust cloud had dissipated quite a bit, so I kicked off and flew straight into it, holding my breath along the way. Inside the dust cloud, the particles still stung my eyes so I shut them too. 

Suddenly, while I was still inside the cloud, something snatched my leg and pulled me down. I shrieked and struggled, but to no avail, so I tried to away at top speed. All this did was create a wind what swept the rest of the dust away and revealed my assailant's identity. It was Admiral Chu.

Listen closely and remember well the name of the foe whom you fought for it will be the sound of doom in your ears! he growled with something resembling fire ablaze in his eyes. I am Admiral Chu and no one defies MEEEE! he screamed as he whipped the sharp tip of his tail into my back and delivered a powerful blast of electricity.

I screamed in pain like a wild animal caught by a predator. When the blast was finally over, he let me fall to the ground, now robbed of my SSJ form, my violet hair again streaming down my face. I hit the ground with a dull thud, but didn't feel it as the slice in my back was robbing my other senses of their effectiveness. I thought, I couldn't just mind my own business. I just had to pick on a talking, lightning-throwing rat. I could have just raced everyone away from here, but noooooo- My thoughts were cut short by someone's hand placed on my shoulder. I was still twitching from the left over static.

It was Dianna. She was still weak, but had gotten over here nonetheless. Admiral Chu laughed overhead at her attempt at comforting me. He had the upper hand and we all knew it.

Dammit, this sucks. I plainly stated. We've got to get out of here. Dammit, I dunno if I can still fly...

That's ok. I have a plan. she whispered. I turned my head slightly to see her smiling.

Must be better than anything I could come up with right now. I struggled a bit and managed to get on my hands and knees. Hope it works. I gave her a thumbs-up before running out of energy and crashing back to the ground, breathing heavily. 

Dianna flew up angrily to where Admiral Chu floated confidently. You want a piece of me? she challenged him. You want one? Well, come get one. I ain't got all day! she screamed, firing a small energy ball which Admiral Chu dodged with ease. 

Is that the best you've got? he mocked her. Well, I'll accept your challenge, though it isn't much of one. he rushed at her and she dodged by pure luck and floated upwards toward the sun...

That was her plan!?!?

Dianna put one hand on each side of her face and shouted, SOLAR FLARE!!! A blinding flash of light was reflected into Admiral Chu's eyes, blinding him temporarily. A moment after the flash, a huge force hit me in the stomach and before I knew what was going on, I was flying with it and away from our foe. Dianna had picked me up along with her family and was now flying as fast as she could in her chosen direction. I relaxed and lost consciousness as the wave of adrenaline caught up with me. Little did I know just how precious that rest would seem in comparison to the things to come...

***   
In the home base of the Black Plague...

You stupid fool! a booming voice rang out from the darkness of a large, dark, science-fictiony room. In the middle of the room, Admiral Chu cowered in a spotlight.

B-but master, I- he stammered.

the Black Plague demanded. I gave you strict orders not to touch that girl! She will be MY prey! IS THAT CLEAR!?!

Y-yes sir! Admiral Chu choked in compliance out of his fear for his master.

Good. I am assigning you a new trainee group in a few days. Starting tomorrow, all of the top officers of the Rodents will congregate here for a meeting. There was a short pause, and then the Black Plague addressed Admiral Chu on the subject of how his job was to be carried out. You may do as you like with the other life forms on these worlds, but if that girl, that Sakina survives the poison, she is mine.

***

I don't know how long I was unconscious, but when I awoke, I was in a strange, metal-walled room.

She's awake! someone shouted. The voice struck me as oddly familiar, though I couldn't quite place the flitty, little-girlish attitude it carried with it.

That's good. Katrine responded. I was getting worried.

Max, get me some more cold water and a clean cloth. I bet she has a headache after all that. That was Dianna, and she couldn't have been more right. I felt like I had been hit by a comet. I rolled onto my side and groaned. I was in a bed and covered by a blanket; someone had taken my jacket, shoes, and sword and apparently placed them at the foot of the bed. I opened my eyes slowly and they adjusted to the light. Two men directly ahead of me sat in chairs, one looked around 75 with gray hair that stood in a style only described as the after effect of sticking a fork in a wall outlet, the other one looked only around 50 years old and had slightly graying hair that flopped over to one side. The second man sat in a wheel chair with his arms and legs strapped in and covered. He looked as though paralyzed from the neck down. I sensed Katrine at the head of the bed and Dianna was tending to me, though she herself was in terrible condition. Someone else was rushing around her. She was a young girl around my age for what I could guess about her flitty attitude. Max and Sarah were being go-fors and retrieving the things that Dianna and the other girl asked for.

Dianna placed a cold cloth on my forehead. It felt really good and I smiled lightly, shifting in the covers. She laughed at my almost comical expression.

Hey girl, you're safe in the Nest, our home base. So, how are you doing? That was one awful blow you took. Our isolation chamber is out-of-order, so first aid is all we can offer. Here, it's time to change the bandage on your back... she leaned over and I relaxed for a moment, then shot straight up as if a bullet had hit me before Dianna even touched the bandage underneath my black T-shirt.

OMG! The poison! I yelled, wide-eyed. I was running on energy reserves I didn't even know I had now. Where's Gohan? I'm going to die if I don't get that antidote! How long was I down? I asked rapidly as if I had just drank 15 pots of coffee and eaten a truckload of sugar. 

You weren't down for too long. Dianna assured me. Only about 3 hours. Considering your injuries, you should have been out longer. Gohan's over there. she pointed to the 50-year-old man.

I stood up quickly, but a sharp pain in my back brought be back down to the bed. I continued when I had gotten a hold of myself. Gohan, you're a great scholar, right? Well, while I was fighting, some twerp got me with a poisoned dart.

He nodded, beginning to assess the situation. I see. Do continue.

Well, I have the dart in my jacket's front pocket. Admiral Chu said I have 3 days to live, 2 until I can't fight anymore if I don't get an antidote for the poison.

He nodded again. Sarah, bring me that dart from her pocket and be careful not to touch the tip. Sarah did so.

There's one more thing. We have a theory why the Trunks and Bulma of your world died-

the other man interrupted me, Katrine already explained that. he growled. In case you can't figure it out with that thick skull of yours blocking the way, I'm Vegita, and I don't like it that my only living relative will die if you happen to screw up. he scowled at me.

Grandpa! Don't be so mean. She saved Dianna's life! the other girl yelled at the man. I was shocked as I saw her for the first time. It was almost like looking into a mirror. She wore a blue girl power T-shirt and ripped blue jeans. Her purple hair was kept neatly in two pigtails to either side of her head and she wore a huge grin on her face. The only major difference between us (besides the clothing and hair style choices and our obviously different perspectives of life) was the fact that she had a tail and I didn't. 

You're my counterpart, I can safely guess. I said matter-of-factly.

Yep! That's me! I'm Ki-ki! she told me in her hyper, little-girl's voice.

I'll guess that's your nickname. You can just call me Sakina. I sighed and relaxed as my remaining energy gave out and let me fall back to my original position on the bed. Dianna changed my bandage at last and Gohan began to study the poison on the dart by levitating it around.

Hmmm... I'll have to run some tests. His wheelchair drove through an automatic door as if directed by his thoughts (which, as I later found out, it was) and into a lab set up with a few almost-empty bottles of various chemicals, a few microscopes of varying power, and various tools. The door shut behind him and began his work with Sarah as his aid.

Vegita scowled some more.

I closed my eyes, but continued to talk. So, you're my grandpa. You're everything my dad told me you were. I smiled lightly.

Mirai Trunks. He was a good kid. Vegita sighed. Not like Chibi, he was a real brat, all the kids of this time are.

Hey! Don't talk about my daddy that way! Ki-ki scolded him.

Vegita rolled his eyes and re-gained his hard-faced scowl. I let out one sigh as a  
giggle.

In my world, you're already dead. I told him. Defeated by the androids.

You're father told me that already. He growled at the inconvenience of hearing that again.

I sighed again. I'm going back to sleep. Wake me up if you need me. When I'm rested enough, I'll show you all what I can do before... I thought a bit. I was already considering another confrontation with the Rodents, but especially Admiral Chu. Before I go take care of some business. I rolled back over and was asleep before anyone could ask me as to clarify what I meant.

_To be continued... And I know you can't wait! ;)_


	4. Episode 1: Chapter 3: Trust Games

_**Chapter 3 - Trust Games**_

_  
"Trust is always the first casualty of war."- Again, source unknown. (I'm going to have to look these up some day...)_

**I awoke slowly what seemed only an instant later. The room was completely dark except for some light coming from the crack below the door to Gohan's lab. I was feeling quite refreshed and my wounds had completely healed thanks to the high healing rate I inherited through my Saiyin ancestry. I stood up and stretched; I felt absolutely great. I walked over to retrieve my shoes, jacket, and sword and I donned them all. Then I noticed a glowing display on the far side of the room on a wall. It was a clock! Wow! It was so long since I had actually seen a clock anywhere... The time read 9:37 AM. No wonder I felt so great, I had slept for more than 17 hours. What a luxury!**

**Just then, Gohan burst through the door to his lab and shouted, "Wake up! Breakfast time!" Since only Dianna had stayed in the room over night (besides me), only one groan was heard in comparison to the many that would have followed if everyone had spent the night in that room, but the lure of the smell of food coming from the kitchen and through Gohan's lab got her up.**

**The tiny glimpse I had stolen before of the lab only reviled a tiny area of the rest of the complex. Two more doors led off the lab and I guessed that many led off of the rooms beyond them too. One of them was the dining room.**

**"Ah, Sakina. You're looking well. How did you sleep?" Gohan asked after noticing me.**

**"Really good, actually. I feel better than I can remember... Jeez, almost feels like the poison's gone..." I thought aloud wishfully.**

**"Well, that's what I need to test right now. I still don't know exactly how this poison would affect the Saiyan immune system..." he told me, uncovering a large needle next to him on a table.**

**My eyes widened and I had to cover my mouth to keep from shrieking. What would Vegita think, me being a descendant of the Royal Family and all and afraid of needles...**

**Gohan chuckled as if reading my thoughts. "Most people hate needles, you should have seen how my dad acted... Anyway, I'm not going to poke you with it." I relaxed. "As you see, I can't efficiently do it. Katrine will be my assistant there." I tensed again. "Don't worry, she's a registered nurse and is very good about it. She even got Dad to calm down... I only need your cooperation, and even as it is, it took her almost the entire day to get at him, and Vegita was the one to have to catch him when he tried to run away." He chuckled, remembering something happy. "Katrine won't be able to touch you if you don't cooperate."**

**I sighed heavily. "I guess I don't have a choice. Can it at least wait till after breakfast though? I guess I missed dinner yesterday, I'm starving."**

**"Sorry, but that would interfere with the test results. We have to do it now. You're such a strong girl, I'm sure you can handle a little poke after chopping off your own tail-" He assured me, smiling, before I interrupted him.**

**"Katrine told you about that, didn't she?" I frowned, not very happy that my most embarrassing secret' had been spread so quickly.**

**"Of course. She told everyone." He told me as if the knowledge was as common as dirt is brown.**

**"Even Vegita?" I winced at the thought of him finding out. I guess he was the only person I could directly relate to, being what my own grandfather could have been.**

**"Yes, him too." Gohan confirmed my fears. "Anyway, if you can survive one of Admiral Chu's attacks, you can survive a poke with a needle."**

**I laughed nervously. "I guess."**

**Katrine walked in just then from the room she had been preparing in. She was wearing a white coat and gloves and her hair was tied back. She motioned for me to sit down in a seat in one corner of the lab. I did so and held out my arm, palm up**

**"Hey Sakina. You'll be fine." Katrine told me in a soothing voice.**

_**"Stay calm."**_** I thought. I'm sure I was a comical sight, and let out a nervous giggle as I realized how stupid I was being. Katrine took my arm and dabbed alcohol around the spot she had chosen to use. She then reached for the needle. **_**"Calm... Be calm... Think about something else, not needles. Think about-"**_** I took a peek as the needle entered my flesh and squirmed. **

**"Don't go berserk on me now, Sakina!" Katrine warned. "With all I'm sure you've been through, this shouldn't even bother you. See?" She removed the needle when she had drawn enough blood. "All done."**

**She was right, I hadn't even felt it. I smiled at my idiocy, though that did nothing for my needle-hate.**

**Just then, another thought hit me. "If you're such a good nurse, then why weren't you treating anyone's wounds yesterday?" I asked her.**

**She chuckled. "While you were unconscious, your ki kept flaring and pushing me away. It was impossible for me to get closer to you than I was, even close enough to get at Dianna. I wouldn't have been able to work on you if I tried, so I called her to do it." She told me, laughing as if it were the best joke she'd heard in a long time.**

**I was satisfied with that. "Can I go eat breakfast now?" I asked, sounding completely unlike myself.**

**"Sure." Gohan winked, then began blabbing. "You'll be happy to know that I've identified the toxin that the Rodents exposed you to. I've never encountered it before in this universe, so it must belong to one of the other worlds. It was actually very simple for me to figure out a way to convert the poison into an antitoxin with a large enough dose to affect someone, but I would require the use of a chemical agent that I once used at my old high school and don't have here. That is, if we still need it. I don't know how your immune system would handle such a toxin. I know you're part Saiyan, but being mostly human may work to our disadvantage."**

**"Well, hopefully we won't be needing it." I told him as cheerfully as I could sound, totally unlike myself. I walked through the door that led to the dining room and sat down with everyone. Katrine and Gohan joined a while later.**

**There wasn't much for food considering how many Saiyans we were feeding, but it was food nonetheless, and cooked!**

**"Ki-ki, would you pass me the fruit bowl?" Dianna asked politely.**

**"Sure thing..." She first emptied what was left of the washed fruit onto Dianna's plate (which would have happened irregardless), and then placed the bowl on top of Dianna's head, in the process, emptying the content of water and fruit stems.**

**"Thanks a lot, baka." Dianna rolled her eyes.**

**"You're welcome, Dee-dee!" Ki-ki chided mockingly.**

**"I told you never to call me that, baka!" Dianna scowled at her best friend.**

**"Well, if you can call me baka, I can call you Dee-dee!" Ki-ki stuck her tongue out.**

**Gohan sighed as the two went at it. "You can really tell that they're their father's children..."**

**"Where are my pancakes?" Vegita yelled. I passed them to him after taking *only* two myself.**

**We all continued to eat our breakfast in anything BUT silence. Gohan, with help from Max and Sarah, managed to finish his meal first and floated to the lab to study the sample he had taken from me. Dianna and Ki-ki "renewed old bonds." In other words, they pulled pranks, each other's hair, the table cloth... and acted like total kids. I couldn't blame them, they were. I almost felt jealous, but stopped that train of thought dead in its tracks. Katrine had a fun time talking to everyone, even though no one was listening to her seemingly pointless chatter, and Vegita stole a few glances between Ki-ki and I between scowls. We all had a fun time together and totally forgot, between mouthfuls of skillfully prepared food, that we were in the middle of a war that we seemed to have no chance of winning. **

**"Sakina, you have absolutely no fashion sense! Ki-ki informed me, awakening me from my daydream.**

**"Ah, well, where I come from, it's hard enough to get wearable clothes at all now, especially in my size, let alone fashionable ones. I mean, it's only been what, somewhere around fifteen, twenty years since my father defeated the androids, and the people have more important things to worry about than what's going to be the next fashion." I lifted one corner of my mouth for her to let her know I kept the subject lightly.**

**"Well, I know. But we're really going to have to do something about those pants!" She continued. "I mean, the jacket and shirt combo really works for you, but I bet I have something in my closet that's better than those old things!"**

**"Thank you." I told her.**

**"Don't sweat it! We're like sisters!" I had enough time to snatch a last mouthful of breakfast before being dragged out of the room by a more than eager duo of teenage girls. Vegita mumbled something about crazy kids on our way out. Ki-ki led me down a straight hallway and past many rooms where machines hummed sweetly--a room with a generator in it was the largest--and into a room completely overrun by everything pink and fluffy, her room.**

**Ki-ki shut the door behind Dianna and I and opened her closet with a dramatic, "Tada!" She rummaged excitedly through the closet, which looked to be organized in the style of the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. Her tail flicked around happily while she held up various styled of pants to me.**

**"Hmm..." She sighed thoughtfully as she held up each one. "Well, if you're going to try them on, you'll have to take off that sword, it'll get in the way." She lectured me. "You look like you're about to march into a gang fight!"**

**"I suppose..." I wondered as I laid my sword on her bed hesitantly after a short mental debate with myself. I never liked to put that thing down, and you can understand why. Immediately, Ki-ki snatched a black pair of jeans and showed them up to me.**

**"Perfect!" She squealed at her own genius.**

**"Oh brother..." Dianna sighed.**

**"Now try them on!" Ki-ki instructed me while pushing Dianna out of the room. "Call when you're done!" she shouted before closing the door.**

**I changed into the pants **_(A.N.: those perverted guys out there thought they were going to see something? HAH! I don't write that way! And nothing even CLOSE to that happens for a loooong time yet!)_**, then modeled in front of the mirror. The brand new pants actually did go with my current outfit from what little fashion sense I had. **

**"Okay! I'm ready!" I shouted, still inside the room. I expected Ki-ki to jump in, but after waiting a few seconds no one did. "I'm ready, you can come in!" I shouted, my second attempt. Still no response. I opened the door and peeked down the empty hallway. "Girls?" I whispered to the still air. I was getting a bit worried. I had discovered earlier that ki couldn't be sensed beyond the walls and the only exception to the rule seemed to be the dining room. Speaking of which, I could see a light coming from the translucent window of its closed door. I began to walk tentatively toward the door, and heard voices when I came close. It seemed that everyone was having a conference. Without me. I went into major stealth mode and listened through the decorated wooden door.**

**"Alright, second thing on the agenda," it was Gohan, "I have some terrible news about Sakina. The poison seems to still be in her body, alright."**

**"What? She is a Saiyan, is she not?" Vegita yelled. "No poison has ever been able to affect a Saiyan!"**

**"Quarter-Saiyan, Vegita. Far from pure-blooded, and just like your own granddaughter and my niece. They all may have received some of the Saiyan attributes, but their 3/4 human heritage doesn't lie. Unless we get the antidote by noon in two days, both she and Ki-ki will die."**

**Ki-ki began to cry and Vegita let out a forceful "Humph."**

**"Please, don't tell Sakina about this yet. We need to see if we can get that chemical agent first. Dianna? You will go on the mission to recover the jar of the chemical. You will leave in a little bit, but we need to distract Sakina first. Here is a remote alarm system. If you get into trouble, press this button and we will automatically be alerted to your situation and be able to track you." Gohan continued. Why didn't they want me to know? Why be so secretive about everything? My question was to be answered by Katrine. **

**"Why can't we tell Sakina about all this? She's a nice young lady, despite the fact that she's Vegita's grandchild."**

**"Watch it, woman!" Vegita snapped.**

**"She's also the second strongest warrior among us, next to Vegita of course. That is, from what you tell me. Because of the fact that she lived with Mirai Trunks, she may also be emotionally unstable. We need to be sure that she's not a time bomb before we trust her with anything all too important." Gohan explained. I was *slightly* miffed by that remark.**

**"A descendent of mine? Unstable? Unheard of! Gohan, you were around when Mirai was here. You know he was a good kid! He was traumatized since birth and his composure still did not waver in our presence!" Vegita argued.**

**"Except that time when he destroyed Gero's lab in a fit. Other than that, yes, he was a great man. But she isn't him, and if you'd get down off of your selfish pride for one moment and actually think, you'd realize you're not her real grandfather, only a shadow of what your counterpart could have been. Neither is Ki-ki really Sakina; they're counterparts. She's not even close to being Trunks. She's Sakina. No one here really knows what she's really thinking, what goes on in her head. She's a wildcard, and a dangerous one at that." Gohan protested. "We need to be careful."**

**I broke away and ran back to Ki-ki's room, trying not to think about what I had just heard, but the concept was clear and simple: they didn't trust me. I guess I couldn't blame them, after all, their reasons were good, and I had to admit, a few correct. Not that I'd ever explode like that, ever become a danger to them. No, the only danger I pose is to myself and to whatever poor, inanimate object that happens to cross my path at just the wrong moment. I was no threat to them. I sat on the bed and waited, thinking about nothing in particular. I had cheered myself up enough, however pathetic my conclusion was, the result was the same. **

**A few minutes later, Ki-ki bounded in, cheerful as ever. It was an obviously fake smile she wore, but she was trying. I stood up and showed her the outfit in my best supermodel pose.**

**"So, what do you think?" I asked her, twirling around.**

**"Perfect!" She squealed. "Absolutely perfect!" She was jumping for joy. After a few gleeful moments of wallowing in her own self-satisfaction, she calmed down. "You know, grandpa and Gohan want to take you up on your offer to show them what you can do, and after that, you and I can have a training session in the Gravitation Room that my grandma built. I hear your grandma was a genius too. Did she teach you anything?" Ki-ki said as calmly as she could. This was the diversion they had planned out.**

**"She taught me everything I know. Well, academically at least. I just hope I don't rip these pants." I picked up my dirty brown pair. "What should I do with this?"**

**She took the pants and sent them down a chute which I previously hadn't noticed. "The wash room will clean them and fix them up as good as new for you. This entire complex is shielded from the outside world so you can't pick up anything inside from outside with a scouter, and it fools the senses too. Grandma built it as a bomb shelter and added those features just in case."**

**"Looks like they come in handy. Well, what are we waiting for? Lead the way!" I shouted. Ki-ki led me down many twisting, winding hallways until at last we reached our destination. There were two doors at the end of the sparsely-lit hallway. One of them was left open a crack and the other was barred shut.**

**"This one is the Gravity Room." Ki-ki indicated the door that was left open a crack. "It's not like the building that was at Capsule Corp, it's more like the Room of Spirit and Time, or ROSAT as we like to call it." I looked at her and cocked an eyebrow, wanting to be prepared more. "Actually, it basically is a doorway to the ROSAT, only a slightly altered version of it. There are buffer zones around a comfortable lobby'--if you could call it that--for about a twenty foot radius around the door. When you go past the buffer zones, you start out at 1g, but every 100 feet you go beyond that, 10 more g's are added. The actual room goes on forever for what I know, no one's really gone out past 1,000 g and that was grandpa that did that, so we really don't know how far out it goes, but it seems like forever. Time flows the same inside and outside the room."**

**"This one us an actual portal to the ROSAT, but the g's here start at 1000." Ki-ki continued. "No one has gone in there since Goku tried it and was so shocked, I'm surprised he got out at all. Grandpa and Gohan are already in the Gravity Room. Shall we join them?"**

**"Of course." I said as I indicated for her to lead the way. We walked in and I closed the door behind us. Gohan and Vegita were positioned against the wall to my left, both sitting down.**

**"You two princesses better have something good for us to see." Vegita growled out as he raised one eyebrow and frowned.**

**"Excuse me?" I asked Ki-ki, wondering. "Did he just say princess'?" I wasn't sure I'd heard that. Vegita would never use any term of endearment!**

**"Of course." Ki-ki nodded as if it were no big deal. "Technically, we are the heirs to the Saiyan throne. If there was an empire to speak of right now, Vegita would be king and we would be the competing princesses. If either of our fathers were around, they would be princes. Actually..." She gave it some more thought. "I would be the only princess for this universe, and you would be the princess of yours. You'd have to get married to become queen, even though your father is already gone. That's just how it is, or at least how Grandpa explained it to me." Ki-ki passed the information on.**

**"That clears things up. I guess Dad never knew because he never met his real father." I caught Vegita's ki flickering at the word "real". I mentally kicked myself for that; the last thing I wanted to do was to make this Vegita feel as awful as me.**

**"Well, Sakina." Gohan interrupted my thoughts. "Time for you to show us what you can do. Here, from what I've heard, you have already reached the first Super Saiyan level. Is that true?" He inquired of me.**

**"Of course." I told him.**

**"Do you mind showing me?" Gohan asked as if he didn't quite believe me. After all, my counterpart was apparently not even close to that level.**

**"No problem." I stepped a few yards outside of the buffer zone and felt the extra gravity take hold. Not that it mattered, I could take far more than a simple 2 g, or whatever it was. I concentrated for a moment and powered up to SSJ1 before letting my feet leave the "ground" to allow me to float slightly in the air. My hair flashed from the limp lavender locks of my father to the spiky, windblown, ki-glazed mop of a Super Saiyan. My normally water-like eyes changed from their rippled appearance to that of a mono-toned turquoise. The yellow aura that surrounded me ran up in waves, tugging at my clothing like I had been caught in a wind storm. I was a Super Saiyan.**

**"No big deal." Vegita crossed his muscular arms and rolled his eyes at me. "I reached level 4 when I was younger."**

**"You only have enough left in you for USSJ now, possibly SSJ2 in a pinch, old man." Gohan glared at him. Vegita scowled back. "And as for level 4, you needed that machine to attain it. Level 1 is very good for her age. Remember, most Saiyans never reached even close to that level, and here you have 3 generations in a row to get there and some beyond. Even if she's not really your granddaughter, just stuff it and watch." A grumble from Vegita. Gohan then turned back to me. "Can you go any further?" He asked.**

**"I've never tried. Sorry." I told him almost sweetly. More grumbles from Vegita. After all, I was "his descendant", in a sense, and I was being nice. Ki-ki was leaning against the wall. She looked almost jealous...**

**"I see. Then we won't have you strain yourself then. What about that sword of yours? You look a lot like your father with it, I could almost swear you were him right now..." He spaced off slightly, looking almost nostalgic, then shook it off and continued. "Are you as great a swords-person as he was?"**

**"I honestly don't know. He never showed me what he could do. I know I'm good with it now, but I have no grounds for comparison."**

**"Hmm. Now you are, I suppose." He considered my statement. Vegita smirked. **

**I blushed, embarrassed, and changed the subject away from my accident. 'I can show you a few of my moves, if you'd like." I offered, still Super Saiyan, but I had let the yellow aura dissipate to nothing.**

**"That would have been my next request. Please do." Gohan nodded and Vegita rolled his eyes.**

**I drew my sword and proceded with the display. Gohan watched intently, taking mental notes, and Vegita looked on as if something crawled up his butt and was chewing its way out. Ki-ki didn't watch at all.**

**"That's enough play." Vegita grumbled at me. "Step it up a notch, I can follow you. You don't have to hold back for these weaklings." By the way he said that last word, I could tell that he had contracted a tenacious distaste for anyone or anything that couldn't hold its own against the enemy. **

**"Funny." I thought. "What's he angry about? He can't do anything either. For that matter, neither can I." "Alright, Vegita." He was right about one thing, I was definitely holding back.**

**So I stepped it up a notch, then another, and another when I had received a hard glare from Vegita. Then jumped the remaining levels when he promised to teach me what real pain felt like if I didn't show him everything I had. **_(A.N.: Yeah, so what if this sounds Mary Sue-ish? For that matter, the entire story may sound like that now, but later on, you'll find out that's not the case at all. Just wait and save your flames for the BBQ.)_

**Finally, satisfied (or as close as he could get), Vegita relinquished control back to Gohan.**

**"Jeez, Vegita. You didn't have to push her that hard." The demi-Saiyan rolled his eyes him along with that statement. He immediately wished he hadn't said that.**

**Vegita glared daggers at the younger man. "She can take it, and if you would have noticed, quite easily also. If you never push yourself beyond your comfort level, you will never get better. You of all people should know that!"**

**Gohan didn't reply to that and soon Vegita was leaning against the wall again, arms crossed. "Alright, eh-em, so." Gohan recovered from his encounter with Vegita. "Vegita, Sakina, would you mind sparring? I'd like to get to know your fighting style, Sakina."**

**"Alright, alright." The prince reluctantly agreed. "I'll spar with the brat." He flew up and out and took a fighting pose in front of me. He grumbled, but there was a faint glimmer in his eyes as he grunted and powered up to SSJ1. "Damn." He swore. "This just gets harder and harder. Well, little girl, show me what you've got. I'm going to take you down." He barred his teeth and made the first move, a stupid mistake and one I never would have expected from him. He sent a kick at my face which I caught and mock-punched him in the gut.**

**"Checkmate." I looked him in the eye and said unemotionally. Had I followed through with that punch, it might have killed him.**

**"Two out of three." was his reply as he backed off and tried it again. This time, he began by firing a ki-ball which I blocked, but the blast had been half-hearted and before I could recover from the previous move, he was in my face delivering blows. He delivered a nice amount before I regained my composure and shoved off. He followed and tried to aim another punch which I dodged, but he used the half-hearted technique again to get me into a melee. This time, I responded with a few blows and blocks of my own, and we went around exchanging blows for the better of 5 minutes (which seems like a long time moving at that speed). At which time, I got slightly irritated that I hadn't gained any ground while he was simply beginning to overpower me.. I shoved off again, prepared this time, and drew my sword, keeping it still out of Vegita's sight. Gohan's eyes widened. Vegita flew at me in a rage and I dodged around, slapping the front of his neck with the flat of the blade.**

**"Checkmate." I said nonchalantly.**

**Vegita roared in frustration. I was sure his head would be rolling across the floor right now had I not stopped. "Three out of five." was his half-choked answer through gritted teeth as he powered up further. I waved a hand at him.**

**"You're much stronger than me, I'll give you that, but powering up more won't help you in the speed category." I turned my back to him and began to slowly float down toward the others.**

**Vegita wouldn't have it. He attained USSJ and rushed at me. Gohan gasped at the potential that he might catch me off guard and deliver a killing blow. After all, what was a mere Super Saiyan level 1 when faced off with an Ultimate Super Saiyan? **

**But I had expected this. I moved aside to dodge the blow and then sped ahead to snatch Vegita's shoulder and pressed an extremely focused ki-ball to his stomach. His eyes widened at the realization that I had still beat him even when he, to his knowledge, had the advantage. Gohan and Ki-ki gasped--their suspicions where fact in their minds at that moment, the timebomb had blown.**

**But that wasn't the case. I crushed the ki-ball with my hand, letting it flicker from existance before their eyes before releasing the shocked Vegita and floating down the rest of the way. I powered down and simply said, "Checkmate" before taking a seat a ways past Ki-ki, alone. Gohan floated over to me after a while. I knew what he wanted to ask, so I began to answer before he could without taking my eyes off the floor.**

**"I couldn't care less about causing more pain, about fighting more battles. Vegita only wants to prove his strength when there's really nothing left to prove. I just want to go back to my peaceful world and if I become bloodthirsty somewhere along that path, I may just end up becoming the next Black Plague." The monotone calmness of my own voice almost shocked me as I spoke, remembering my now hazilly recalled peaceful childhood. I continued nonetheless, staring Gohan in his eyes while tears threatened to well up in mine for that reason, though unknown to him. "That's not what I want, I'll never want that."**

**He merely shook his head and floated out the door with Vegita. As they left, I heard Vegita whisper just loud enough for my Saiyan ears to catch (though that wasn't Vegita's intent), "My test worked. I told you she was a good kid." And then they shut the door, leaving me with Ki-ki. They were playing a game with me, and I was beginning to dislike it.**

_To be continued..._

So what do you think? Like it? Hate it? Feedback, everyone! Ok, I admit, it's not the best quite yet, but it starts getting REALLY good somewhere around chapters 5-7, depending on what kind of action you like. One more thing, You know how I said that I had the entire thing in draft form? Well, while writing this chapter, I discovered that somewhere along the line I had completely changed my outlook, that is, how the story ends. Now I have two sepperate endings, two sepperate timelines worked out. ...And two more that start at around chapter 5. ...And 2 more that are comming up afterward. Ouch. Maybe all those sleepless nights I spent drafting this monster caught up to me... Anyway, hons, it will be up to the readers as to which timeline this story follows! 

In your reviews, tell me:

1A: Should there be a little romance budding for Sakina early in the story or

2A: Later in the story, as in midway through? (we're looking at something around chapters 25+, and I may not even get that far until I graduate... **uneasy look**)

1B: Should I mix in a real brain buster thing with the connected timelines that results in Chibi Trunks, Mirai Trunks, and Goten comming back or...

2B: Not confuse everyone with mixing 2 stories together later on (but not so far off)

1C: Should I make the way that the group defeats the Black Plague a real brain buster that they figure out at the last minute or...

2C: A huge sacrifice that leaves the door open to a sequal?

I need feedback before I go much further! Actually, before I start chapter 4 because I have to "set the stage" if you know what I mean. Feedback, people! If you want to see what happens to Sakina and the rest of the 4 worlds, I need feedback for each of these possible "timelines"!

Another thought before you go...

If I feel up to it and everyone wants it, I could do a multiple ending kind of thing where you chose your own ending/story. That would be cool too, but it would mean re-typing 30+ chapters 9 times for me. I dunno... 'Till I get going again... Bai-bai!

Feedback: e-mail me at [][1]willow920@hotmail.com! 

   [1]: mailto:willow920@hotmail.com



	5. Episode 1: Chapter 4: Captured?

Chapter 4 - Captured?

  
"In a battle of equals, the one with the stronger will to win will. That is, as long as the other one doesn't throw in a cheap shot." - Silent Willow

***

Outside with Gohan and Vegeta...

"Vegeta, you're still the strongest here," Gohan told the ornery man, "But Sakina is faster and more cunning."

"That's a given that my decedents should be cunning!" Vegeta spat back coldly.

"Like I said before, she's not really of any relation to you." Gohan lectured the older man. "You two come from completely different timelines, don't ever forget that. She has no one left in her timeline; you and Ki-ki have each other. Don't ever believe differently."

"As far as I'm concerned, Sakina needs a sister and a grandfather in her life. Ki-ki and I can provide just that." Vegeta scoffed.

"And it seems that you aren't very concerned. You know we practically had to raise your son for you. Just because you actually felt like a father toward Mirai Trunks doesn't mean that you really were his father. Mirai knew that you were merely a shadow of what his father could have been and though he tried to have a father-son relationship with you, he never forgot that." Gohan continued, "Don't expect Sakina to be any different."

***

In the gravity room...

After a little while, Ki-ki walked over to me.

"So..." She held out her hand to help me up. I refused it. "Shall we begin?" I got up on my own and nodded solemnly. "Gohan says I'm pretty good, but I can't go SSJ yet." She scratched the back of her head nervously and giggled a bit.

"There are a few requirements for a Saiyan to transform into the SSJ state." Ki-ki perked up and listened attentively. "First, you must have a high enough power level. Second, you must be pure of heart, either good or evil, but it would be much more difficult for an evil person to achieve it."

"That doesn't sound too hard. Dianna and I already have those things... I think..." Ki-ki interrupted me.

"But the final requirement is that you must be in such a state of rage that normal thinking is nearly impossible." I told her. She frowned, now much more leery of the SSJ form. "Don't worry, after the first transformation at each level, the person can be trained so that the level can be achieved without such a terrible thing happening."

"Oh." she said plainly.

"Usually, the fuel for the rage is an intense shock of injustice, or at least, that's what happens for good people. I don't know how evil people do it... But anyway, I doubt that you or Dianna have experienced such a shock firsthand yet."

"Well, you're right there, but why did you say 'usually'?" she asked.

"Sometimes the afterthought of a hurtful situation can be enough to push someone to the next level. My father told me that, but I don't think he ever tested it." I told her. "It works in theory, though."

"So... You'd have to get me really mad?" There was a note of concern in her voice.

"Yeah, that's basically it." I stated matter-of-factly, "I know it will probably be hard, but that's the only way we can do it without someone dying or something being destroyed."

She thought about it for a few moments, and then bounced back to her usual giddy self. "Ok, let's train!"

"Alright." I agreed, "How far out do you want to go?"

"Probably out to 10 g's to start. I haven't had much training out past 12 g's. The unstable gravity makes it difficult to balance." Ki-ki told me, now oddly serious. "I dunno if I'd be able to keep up with you, but oh well." She blushed, slightly embarrassed. "But that's why we're here, right?"

"Sure is." I told her. "I'll keep my level around yours so you might actually get a few strikes in, ok?" I lifted one corner of my mouth in a slight smile before turning and walking outward.

"Hey! I could beat you hands-down without even breaking a sweat!" she protested. It was an empty threat and we both knew it. I giggled. We were acting like sisters, all right.

Ki-ki flew out to the 10-g area ahead of me and crossed her arms. "Ha ha! I beat you!" she teased and stuck her tongue out.

I sighed and flew out to join her. "Alright, I'll give you that. Let's get down to business, ok?"

She powered up and a white fireball of energy appeared around her. I responded with a similar energy oval and took a fighting stance.

"If that's the best you've got, then we may have a way to go before you can reach SSJ." I told her with a slight smirk on my face.

"Hey! Didn't I tell you that I could beat you hands-down?" she protested once more.

"Well? Why don't you try?" I asked her sarcastically.

"Nah, I'll probably break a nail. Besides, it's not worth my time to fight you..." She stood straight up and examined her perfectly polished nails. I let go of my pose and power up in confusion and before I could contemplate the situation, Ki-ki rushed at me and caught my gut with her fist. She then pulled me up over her head by my arm and threw me down. Once I hit the ground, she locked me there with her foot and crossed her arms. There was a smirk on her face and a dumbfounded look on mine. After a few moments like that, we both burst out laughing. She lifted her foot and I got up.

"Well, I'll give you that," I told her, smiling. "You caught me off guard."

"I still caught you!" she giggled, proud of herself.

"You sure did, but tricks like that won't help you get stronger. They'll work for a quick victory, but only once. You won't fool many people by using the same trick twice." I pointed out.

"That's not the point," she told me, "that was just for fun. Now we can get serious if you want." She winked, her arms still crossed.

I smiled in a Vegeta-ish way and refreshed my fighting pose. "Let's go then."

She took her pose, much different from mine, and then rushed at me, betraying her move with a yell. I dodged and kicked off the ground. Ki-ki followed suit and soon we let fly a series of punches and kicks, all of which were blocked or dodged. After a long and fruitless bout of this, we kicked away from each other. Ki-ki fired a continuous energy blast at me and I quickly charged up and fired one of my own. They met and held each other. Ki-ki was holding hers at near full capacity while I merely used enough energy to keep my beam at just under the halfway point. Ki-ki recognized this as an opportunity to over power me and yelled as she pumped more energy into her blast. I responded with a little more of my own energy. Ki-ki tried even harder and I needed to power up to control the conflicting light blue energy, now huge before my eyes. We held the beams a while more before a slight fluctuation in Ki-ki's concentration caused it to explode. Ki-ki was thrown from the air and skidded to a stop halfway to the entrance. I was thrown a good distance away from it before recovering in the increased gravity. Ki-ki was absolutely exhausted. I flew over to her and offered my hand, but she laughed at me and got up on her own.

She took her pose once more and merely said, "Round two."

***

Dianna was flying toward an old school complex far away from the Saiyan's base. It was Gohan's old Orange Star high school. Most of it lay in ruins. The plaster that used to cover the outside walls was no more than a memory to the gray brickwork and cracked mortar beneath. Nothing above the third floor existed, and most of the building below had been destroyed. The orange emblem was sunk halfway into the ground a few meters from the entrance. The bright orange paint was faded and rust stains ran down it. Some of it was chipped away and two points of the star were missing while much of the rest was cracked. It wasn't a welcome sight to the scholar's niece, but it was better than it could have been.

As Dianna landed in front of the run down building, a shiver ran down her spine and her tail twitched uneasily. She subconsciously positioned her hand over the silent alarm by her side and took one cautious step through the doorway. She knew the floor had once been covered with adequately polished tile and paper balls as the laughter of teens much like herself rang down the halls, but now she stepped upon dingy, dirt-covered tile and her soft footsteps echoed eerily loud down the ghostly halls, creaks and cracks sounding after each one as she continued slowly and cautiously into the building. Looking up, she found that she could see all the way through the top in several places, though the entire building was still unnaturally dark and dank. She took another cautious step and a flock of pigeons took flight, startling her and making her jump back quickly. Once her heart no longer felt like a jackhammer, she began walking once more. As she walked, she swept the area constantly for any danger with her less-than-perfect ki sense. If a Rodent was standing anywhere outside a ten foot radius, she wouldn't have known it.

After her last little scare, she walked swiftly to her destination: the old chemistry lab. Once she reached it, she peered in cautiously and scanned the area, but found no danger worth noting.

The lab was in horrible shape. The desks were broken and mostly unrecognizable and their various pieces and parts littered the floor, which hadn't seen the likeness of a mop and broom for years. The equipment was rusted, broken, or otherwise unrecognizable. The windows had long since blown out, probably in the initial attack of the school. Ivy growth from both inside up through the broken, uneven tile and outside covered the would-be-open window like a eerie living blind and had begun to creep across both counter and floor, snagging rusted machines and the ghost-like remains of desks and supplies. The cabinets had mostly fallen over and glass shards littered the floor. Wooden cabinets were horribly weathered and warped and metal ones had only their rusted outlines across the dingy floor to prove that they once existed. The paint was only a memory to the walls and in some places even the drywall was missing, revealing the bare skeleton of the building.

She walked as carefully and quietly over to the cabinets as she could, taking much care not to step on the vines, broken desks, or shards of glass.

Peering into the messy cabinets at the various begrimed glass jars of assorted chemicals, she searched for a specific one, its name inscribed on a crumpled piece of paper Gohan had given her before leaving. She reached in to grab a few jars and see their labels more clearly. Some had been completely warn away, others were covered with ink or some other chemical that had long since dried on, and still others were broken and long since emptied. She picked out a broken jar marked "hydrochloric acid" from above a melt hole in the rusted steel shelf and laughed quietly to herself at the dry bottle before laying it aside with the others. Nope, not that one... Not that one either... Just as she was getting fed up with her fruitless search, a brown-tinted bottle toward the back caught her eye. She peered closer at it... That was it! In her joy, she snatched it quickly and held it to the light, smiling gleefully. ...That is, until she felt a sharp pain travel swiftly across her index finger. She brought the bottle closer and turned it around to discover a deep cut in her finger and her own blood dripping down the side and onto the floor. In search of the perpetrator of this injury, her face fell. The back of the bottle she held was broken and its former contents long since spilled and dried up. She let it drop from her hands and clatter noisily on the floor, shattering into hundreds of shards. Dianna was about to send her elbow through the rusted cabinet in frustration when a smaller brown jar caught her eye. Lifting it up and shaking it, she discovered that it was very full and had not even a crack. She turned it over to read the label and a smile spread across her face. She found it.

She pressed a finger to her earpiece to activate the microphone. "Mother Goose, Mother Goose, come in! This is Kitten 2. The lost mittens have been found, I repeat, the lost mittens have been found. Returning to base." Dianna lowered her hand and pocketed the jar. Of course, it was too risky in her current position for the base to send back a transmission; they might be intercepted and discovered by the Black Plague.

Dianna sighed contentedly as she began to walk toward the doorway of the old lab. The most dangerous part of the mission was over. Now she could head back to base and deliver the chemical to Gohan and he could have the antidote completed with plenty of time to spare...

Suddenly upon reaching the door and looking up, she stopped dead in her tracks, a look of surprise widening over her face. Right in front of her stood 26 of the most menacing-looking Rodents she had ever seen.

"Well, well." Jeered their apparent leader. Dianna didn't recognize him. "Look here, if it isn't the little brat who's been causing all the trouble with our troops." Dianna quickly scanned their collective kis, and her face betrayed her fear. Never had she faced this many powerful rodents before. "I am Colonel Sparks, and I have orders to capture and restrain you."

Dianna's fingers brushed the button on her alarm inconspicuously as she struck her fighting pose. "Catch me if you can." She growled menacingly as her tail swung around agitatedly behind her. Suddenly, she felt a sharp crack in the back of her neck. She was unconscious before her limp body hit the dirty floor, kicking up dust with a dull "thud".

"Good work, Private number 12793." The general praised the young soldier who had taken Dianna out with one strike. "Now tie her up quickly, she won't be out for long. Apparently, this kid recovers quickly."

The alarm Dianna wore around her belt blinked softly with a small red light as the Rodents bound and gagged her and carried her limp, unconscious body away, leaving a trail for the others to follow.

***

"REEEEP! REEEEP! REEEEP!" A deafening alarm resounded down the halls of the base as twirling red lights illuminated the halls and a similar red light started up near the exit of the gravity room. It stalled me enough to let Ki-ki introduce her fist to my face, sending me to the ground. She floated down to the ground next to where I fell. I got up quickly and looked at her, a confused expression on my face. Her eyes were wide and her lips were parted slightly as she suddenly jetted toward the exit the next moment. I followed her out the open door and down the hall. I had to cover my ears to keep from being deafened by the blaring alarms as I followed Ki-ki toward the dining room, which I had come to notice also functioned as a meeting room.

Upon entering, I discovered the area abuzz with activity. Gohan was shouting orders to Max and Sarah, sending them left and right to fetch things for whatever he was doing. Katrine was pacing around in worry and Vegeta fumed and cussed under his breath.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I entered the room. Ki-ki sat down by Vegeta's side and tried to calm him down. My question went unnoticed. I cleared my throat. "Eh em. I said, **WHAT'S GOING ON!?**" Gohan stopped his work, Katrine halted her pacing, and Vegeta stopped cussing. They all stared at me as if seeing me there for the first time.

"Well, erm," Gohan started, "uh..." He was unsure how to put it. "You see, Dianna went out on a mission to retrieve the chemical agent for your cure and, uh..."

"And you didn't trust me enough to let me in on it." I finished for him, my arms now crossed and my expression angry. Everyone was speechless. "I heard you talking about me before and frankly, I don't like it when people play games with me." I scowled with my grandfather's famous scowl. Gohan along with everyone else was afraid now, afraid that I might snap, but I wasn't about to. "I understand your caution and I've played along with your game until now." I placed one hand firmly and coolly on the table. "I know that you have good reasons not to trust me, but truthfully, I'm not the enemy you should be worried about. For your information, I keep myself pretty well in check. I've only blown up once, and then I had a very good reason to. Now tell me, what do these alarms mean?" I asked to confirm what I had already guessed.

The room was silent for a few moments aside from the alarms. Then, Vegeta reached over to a hidden button and pressed it, silencing them and switching off the flashing lights. Ki-ki was the one to speak.

"Well, we still have the poison to worry about as you probably already know, and Dianna flew off to retrieve the chemical agent we need to make the antitoxin. We gave her an alarm to set off if she ran into any trouble and apparently she did." Ki-ki told me.

"Actually, it's probably better that you know now anyway." Gohan stated. "I know it's almost lunch time, but we have to take care of this now. Take a piece of fruit and eat up, both of you." Ki-ki and I obeyed, each taking an apple to eat and beginning work on them. "It's better than nothing. Ki-ki, go get the radar. You'll need it to track Dianna. You and Sakina will go; Vegeta should stay back in case you two fail. That way all of our eggs aren't in one basket." Ki-ki retrieved the small, hand held device and Gohan instructed Max and Sarah to hand us each a set of some other strange device. "Use these to stay in touch with the base, they're microphones. Those chips go on the inside of your ears and the little bulb clips onto your shirts. That way, you can tell us what's going on and talk to each other if you get separated." Ki-ki and I put the sets on and activated them.

"That's your little briefing, now get going! You might not have much time!" Vegeta roared, shooing us away.

"Right." Ki-ki walked out of the room and I began to follow.

"Be careful, Sakina." Katrine told me. "Good luck to the both of you, rescue my girl!"

I shut the door behind myself. "So," I said, turning to Ki-ki, "how do we get out of here?"

"Follow me." She yelled back as she kicked off and flew down the hallway. I followed close behind, noting each twist and turn for future reference. Ki-ki stopped at a door at the end of a long hall a minute later and placed her hand on a panel. The machine scanned her handprint and took a DNA sample. The pad changed from red to green and the door slid up as a large rock rolled out of the way at the other end, bathing us in bright sunlight. I wondered since I was Ki-ki's direct counterpart whether the security panel would register me as her. We walked out and onto the short wild grasses in front of the gigantic cliff behind and the large boulder rolled back in place, camouflaging the entrance perfectly. I didn't have much time to ponder it more because Ki-ki flew quickly off in a direction I deemed as random. I followed quickly, trying to mask my ki as much as possible while traveling as fast as Ki-ki. I discovered the method to her apparent madness when she landed at the entrance to a large, demolished, abandoned building, the old Orange Star High School, I presumed, and took out her radar, which promptly began to beep softly. "Alright. This is where she was last." She mumbled out loud to herself, swinging the radar in the direction of the old school. Ki-ki raised her unoccupied hand to her ear and applied a slight amount of pressure to the chip inside. "Come in, Mother Goose. Kitten 1 and Kitten 3 have arrived. Commencing search for Kitten 2 and the Lost Mittens. Do you copy, Mother Goose?"

"Kittens? Mittens? Mother Goose?" I asked.

"Yeah, got a problem? That's our code. I'm Kitten 1 and you're Kitten 3." She informed me.

"Alright, alright..." I sighed, rolling my eyes.

"Kittens 1 an 3, this is Mother Goose." I heard from my earpiece. "I read you. Poppa Gander, the Little Goslings, and the Muffin Man all copy fine. Over." I recognized Katrine's voice.

"Who's the Muffin Man?" I asked Ki-ki.

"Shhh! Not so loud! It's Grandpa. He hates the name, but he got a hold of Katrine's muffins once while they were cooling and ate the entire batch before dinner. Ever since, the name stuck. Let's just take care of business. We don't have much time." She scolded me as she attempted to follow the trail of electromagnetic ions to their origin.

"Talk about a reversal of roles." I commented. "I should be telling you to get down to business."

"Don't get too used to it. I'm just so stressed out right now that I can't be funny. How would you like to lose track of your best friend, then not know if she was alive or not, but have to go into a potentially dangerous situation just to find out?" She growled irritably.

I shrugged off the question. I never had a best friend, so I wouldn't know.

We arrived at the origin of the trail inside the creepy building a few moments later. The dust and dirt was disturbed from an area about 20 feet around the starting point. There were some strange marks, probably from someone dragging a rope across the floor, and then a single, wide path of footprints leading out the door.

"It doesn't look like there was much of a struggle." Ki-ki concluded, speaking into her microphone. "They probably surprised her and took her out in one or two hits." She looked around some more. "I don't see the Lost Mittens anywhere around, Poppa Gander. They must be with Kitten 2 still."

"We read you, Kitten 1." Katrine sighed into her end of the mike. "Start following the trail."

So that's just what we did. Ki-ki flew out of the school and used the radar to lock onto Dianna's trail. I followed, flying next to her, watching the line on the display fluctuate as Ki-ki tried to stay over the trail. We flew slowly at first, but faster as Ki-ki seemed to get the hang of it. After a while, I broke away from my position and flew farther away from her, but still alongside.

"The countdown continues..." I sighed.

***

Dianna awoke suddenly in a dark, windowless room. She sat up from her uncomfortable position on the impossibly cold, rubbery floor and blinked, her eyes straining to adjust as well as they could to the almost non-existent light.

"Where am I?" she hoarsely whispered, rubbing the sore spot on the back of her neck. "Ki-ki? Mom? Anyone?" she called out, expecting the possibility that she might be back at the base. Upon receiving no answer except the unnaturally dull sound of her own voice, she came upon the conclusion that she was a hostage of the Rodents.

"This sucks royally." She concluded, crossing her arms. After a while of mentally cussing to herself, an all-too-familiar voice filled the echoless room with a sinister ring.

"Hello, little girl. This is Colonel Sparks." The voice tersely greeted her, seething with malice.

"What do you want!?" Dianna shouted as she stood up quickly.

"Nothing, nothing..." the voice cackled menacingly, "except to see you suffer."

Dianna took a subconscious step back. Her enemies had her cornered. She was afraid for a moment, but then remembered that she wasn't exactly helpless. "Hmmm..." she sighed as she felt a ki ball grow in one hand. After a little while, she let the blast fly in the direction of the nearest wall. An explosion that threw her hard against the opposite wall soon followed. Upon shaking the fog from her head, she looked in the direction of her attack. To her surprise, not even a scratch proved that she had ever let loose a blast in that direction.

The voice laughed maliciously at her feeble attempt at escape. "Do you honestly believe that we would be stupid enough to place you in a cell meant for normal prisoners? Wrong! ...Oh, and I suggest you don't do that again. Energy is absorbed by these walls."

Dianna growled in defiance and then charged at the far wall to try and break it down. She hit the wall and bounced off, dazed by the impact.

"Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm." Colonel Sparks laughed. "Like I said, energy is absorbed by these walls, all energy. Don't try the ceiling or the floor either. They're insulated with the same material." Dianna scowled at the point the voice came from and crossed her arms where she sat. Her tail flicked angrily back and forth. After a few moments, she placed one hand in her pocket and fingered the jar, hoping for a way to deliver it in time. The voice laughed again at her angry posture and she growled. Her somber surroundings and bleak situation were definitely not helping her mood at all.

***

"Alright. The trail is fresher here." Ki-ki told me.

"Then we'd better go into stealth mode before-" My sentence was cut short by a laser blast that grazed my arm, producing a red mark over the afflicted area. We had been so intent on following the trail that we hadn't noticed that we were coming up on a gigantic, well-armed complex. It was the largest Rodent base on this world. It looked exactly like the model of Frieza's ship that my grandmother had shown me when I was younger.

"**Get down!**" I yelled as I plummeted toward the Earth. Ki-ki followed, but had to dodge many blasts before landing in a safer spot next to me. The lasers pummeled the ground before us and behind us heavily as I worked out a risky plan. "Ki-ki, fake falling down behind that rock!" I indicated a large boulder by flicking my eyes toward it. She gave me a skeptical look. "Just do it!"

She faked her own demise as if a laser had given her a mortal wound and I flew up. This was going to hurt, and if I didn't do it just right... Well, it wouldn't be pretty.

I stopped and waited for a laser blast, keeping a ball of energy in one hand behind my back. "Wait for it..." I coached myself out loud. Sure enough, someone fired a blast that would have gotten me. At the last possible moment, I brought my energy ball out from behind my back and yelled as I expanded it like a small shield and ducked behind it. The shot was pushed all around and past me as I struggled to hold the shield between it and myself. To anyone watching, it looked like a direct hit. The moment my cover dissipated, I fell toward the ground in a free fall. I landed with a loud bang and kicked up a large cloud of dust behind the boulder Ki-ki had taken refuge behind earlier. That hurt, but the shots ceased.

"So what now?" Ki-ki whispered.

"I only planned to get the lasers to stop. My plan worked, didn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah..." Ki-ki replied, disappointed. There was a long pause. "You know, they stole their base's design from the archives of Grandma's laboratory at the old Capsule Corp." Ki-ki informed me. "If they built it right, that thing can double as a space ship, but they normally use this one as a recreational area and a torture chamber." There was another period of silence. "What I'm saying is, if Dianna's in there, then she's probably not dead yet." She looked uneasy. "I want to rescue Dianna and all, but there's no way for us to get in there without handing ourselves over and none of us are strong enough to survive a forced entry."

"You're probably right." I sighed. "We should really think up a plan..." I spoke into my microphone and notified the others of the situation. It sounded bleak to them. 

"Come back to base." Katrine ordered after a short pause. "We need you back here to think up a plan and possibly to equip you." She had to force out the words, not wanting her daughter to spend any more time in the Rodent's base than she already had, but knowing that there was nothing more we could do here.

"Alright..." Ki-ki sighed. She was about to take off when I grabbed her arm and shook my head.

"There'll be a scouting troop coming out soon to check on us and they'll find you for sure and shoot you down if you fly. We have to walk back far enough to get out of their firing range at least before we can fly anywhere. Try to keep your ki as low as possible. I won't show up on their scouters, but you might. Come on." I motioned for her to follow me back through the maze of rubble and fly ash that covered the ground between the charred skeletons of trees and small leafy bushes that had begun to poke up from the ground once more. Sure enough, moments later a few armed Rodents marched from the base and toward the boulder we had just been behind. Watching them for a moment more than I had intended to, I noticed that one small one seemed a bit shifty, though my train of thought derailed as Ki-ki poked my back to urge me on. When they reached the boulder and found nothing, they split up and began to scan the immediate area.

Ki-ki now lagged behind, watching them. "Go!" I hissed urgently back at her. Ki-ki hurried faster and passed me, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. We were both ducked down as far as we could be and still walking. I looked behind us constantly, not really watching where I was going.

We got about 100 feet away before we heard someone approaching, though it was too late to react. A Rodent, small and possibly no older than the one that had shot me with the dart earlier, came running across our chosen path and bumped into me. It bounced off my leg, but not without tripping me. I was momentarily stunned and Ki-ki had not yet noticed. The little black mouse looked up at me with impossibly huge, scared eyes. This was the shifty eyed one I saw before.

"Please don't hurt me." It pleaded in a squeaky voice. Ki-ki finally noticed and whirled around. "I just want to get away from here! I don't want to be part of this anymore!" It fell at my outstretched feet crying.

"Uh..." I blinked, dumbfounded.

"A Rodent." Ki-ki hissed as the situation finally struck her. "Sakina, what are you doing? Kill it before the rest get here!"

"No! Please don't!" the tiny animal sobbed.

"A blow to its head would leave messy evidence and a blast big enough to disintegrate one of these would have its buddies on our tails in no time." I thought out loud. "And what if it's telling the truth?" I couldn't believe what I was saying.

Ki-ki grimaced for a moment before replying. "You're such a wuss, Sakina, but you're right." She sighed. Fortunately, Ki-ki remembered one thing I forgot. "Kid, lose your scouter and come with us." Scouters function not only as communications devices and power readers but as tracking devices too.

"Thank you! Thank you!" it squeaked excitedly as it threw its scouter into a hole in the debris. The glass cracked and a mechanical fizzle told me it was decommissioned.

"Quiet! Ki-ki demanded of it. "Until further notice, you're our prisoner, got it? You follow direct orders and don't wander off. If we get in a fight, you hide or you will be considered one of the enemy."

"Just follow me." I told the kid as I assumed the position of leader and took off at a stealthy half run. Ki-ki took up the rear, sandwiching the kid between us.

After what seemed like an eternity but was in fact only half an hour, we reached the two-mile mark, which I deemed safe for a short pause.

"So, what's your name, kid?" I asked. Ki-ki gave me a look of disapproval and rolled her eyes.

"Only high officials have names. Us privates are just called by our ID numbers." It told me. "Mine's 179023, ma'am."

"I see." I nodded. "Hey, isn't it supposed to be a rare thing for you young squads to know how to talk? So far I've only heard English from the high officials." I already knew why the new squads learned human speech; I was just testing slightly to make sure it wasn't lying.

"It used to be that way, but now everyone that does more than brainless labor is taught how to talk. The Black Plague and Admiral Chu like to be able to give more complex commands than just 'fight', 'come', and 'thunderbolt attack'." It told me without hesitation.

"Ok..." I sighed before speaking into my microphone. "Mother Goose, this is Kitten 2. We have picked up a Rodent deserter and I think it's true to what he says. For what I can tell, it's a real kid."

"You did **WHAT!?**" Katrine yelled from the other end.

"There was no way around it; we were too close to the base to take it out without revealing our position. Besides, the information we get from him might prove useful." I calmly informed the Nest. "I'll stay out in the field with him for the inquiry though, I'm not risking the location of the Nest."

"Damn right you aren't!" Vegeta's voice roared in my ears.

I sighed. "I'm taking the kid about 40 miles west. We can continue from there; it's not very safe here."

"Hmph." Ki-ki growled, scowling at me, arms crossed. She wanted to see the Rodent die. He was a dangerous enemy in her eyes and she opposed my decision even when it was our best option. I couldn't blame her.

"Come on, Ki-ki. It's not just my life we're playing with." I reminded her harshly. I snatched the kid by his equivalent to a hand and took flight. I hovered for a while, waiting for Ki-ki to follow me.

She sighed and scowled at me before following suit. I flew at a moderate pace; being careful not to go too fast as to hurt the passenger I carried.

All along the way the kid amused me by acting like, well, a kid.

"Wow! You can fly! I thought only Admiral Chu and some of the generals could do that!" he said excitedly while grinning.

"Yeah." I replied, more concerned about masking our ki, but listening nonetheless.

"I didn't know humans could fly. I thought it was only birds and planes and space ships and some of us that could." He stole a backward glance at Ki-ki. "And she has a tail!" His attention quickly turned back to me as he received a nasty glare from my counterpart. "You two look a lot alike, except she has a tail. I don't think humans normally have tails; I've never seen one, but then again I've never seen humans that fly either..." He was quite a chatterbox.

That stopped my train of thought cold. Neither of us was exactly human, but the Rodents couldn't be allowed to confirm that fact.

"We're special." was my reaction.

He sighed. The next instant, he thought of something else. "The view is so pretty here! Wow! I'd never have seen this if I had stayed at the base! I would have had guard duty tomorrow night for the torture cells id I'd have stayed, but I don't want to hear the people scream anymore, especially that new person the stuck in the special energy absorbing room. She's dangerous and Colonel Sparks likes toying with her. It's just nasty."

He was talking about Dianna.

"They're trying to break her, brainwash her. The Black Plague wants her on his side, but I really hope they aren't successful." He continued. "She's got the power of a captain and has much more potential to improve than even Admiral Chu." He paused to think for a short while. "You know, Admiral Chu and all the generals are at a meeting in the Black Plague's main base. There are only two colonels here right now and they don't have many troops to command compared to what they normally do." He paused again. "I hope they aren't planning something big. I like these planets the way they are; I don't know why they insist on slowly destroying the worlds."

The information sunk in, but far from fully. A silent while later, we more or less reached our destination. I set the kid down and he rotated the arm that I had taken hold of, his beady black eyes squinting as she sought to relieve the cramp. His velvety black fur was interrupted only by two dark red stripes across his back, a fading red mark on the tip of his oddly shaped tail, and the imprinted emblem of the Black Plague printed on his right shoulder.

"I've got to thank you for getting me away from that place. I hate being ordered to search out and kill all those people, and working security for the torture chambers isn't exactly fun either. Not many of us younger Rodents likes it, but we have to do it or else. I think I'm the first successful escapee. All the rest were tracked down and killed."

"Are you hearing all this, Mother Goose?" I asked into my microphone.

"Sure am." She replied. "This situation you've put yourself in is dangerous. Be careful."

"I will." I promised her. Suddenly, an idea struck me and a smile slowly spread across my face. "Kid, I can make a deal with you." It was a long shot, but it was our only chance.

"Don't make any deals! He's the enemy!" Ki-ki warned me.

"Then why don't I talk it over with you first?" I offered her, an irritated tone to my voice.

"Uh..." She paused, and then nodded. I smiled and walked over, whispering into her ear to explain...

End Episode 1

**DBZ ending theme begins to play**

Sakina: Hey there! Episode one may be over, but this series is definitely not! What is in store for the Black Plague crew? Well, let's go to the tape...

**A clip of Sakina bursting through the doors of the Gravity Room and screaming, then flying upward and going SSJ instantly, then the golden light exploding into a fireball of energy**

Sakina: **blinks** I get to do that?

**A clip of Vegeta carrying an exhausted Sakina to her room is shown. There is a strange, very un-Vegeta-like expression on his face**

Sakina: Eh... And what's up with Vegeta?

**A clip of Sakina doubled over in pain and twitching on the floor of the Gravity Room is shown, followed by clips of other spasms in the dining room and everyone around her bed while she's unconscious and clearly in pain**

Sakina: I don't like the looks of that... It looks like the poison is going to bring me down quicker than I thought... I hope my plan works!

**A clip of the old Z team on King Kai's planet is shown with everyone placing a hand on King Kai's shoulders, they're cheering Sakina on. Her father is there, talking to her**

Sakina: Daddy! Yay! Well, it looks like King Kai is providing a bit of cross-dimensional phone service. Wow, I can't wait to hear my father's voice...

**A clip of Ki-ki struggling to get into Dianna's cell to bust her out is shown, including her blowing up the access panel**

Sakina: Uh oh. If Ki-ki can't get Dianna or the chemical back in time... **gulp** the next episode might be our last... Ki-ki! Hurry up!

Ki-ki: I'm trying my best!

Sakina: Don't miss the next exciting episode of The Black Plague!

Ki-ki: It's indefinitely a race against time!

Sakina: Hey! It was my turn to do the preview! Don't steal my lines!

**Ending credits begin**

STORY BY:  
Silent Willow

Ki-ki: Well, you called me over!

TYPING BY:  
Silent Willow

Sakina: It was part of the script!

HTML CODING BY:  
Silent Willow

HOSTING BY:  
Fanfiction.net  
Freeservers.com

ACTORS:  
Sakina: Silent Willow, a purple wig, and a cool jeans jacket on clearance at Younkers with a Capsule Corp emblem sewed on the side...  
Ki-ki: Silent Willow's real life very annoying little sister

Ki-ki: HEY! I AM NOT ANNOYING!

Sakina: **Sniggers**

Vegeta: His hot-pink-haired highness after ample convincing by Silent Willow...  
Katrine: Roselyne Marrot. She's a good actor.  
Max and Sarah: Two angry, drunken midgets  
Gohan: Antony after ample convincing  
Rodent Private 179023: Nick Nate, the amazing 3'2 high school Sophomore! (Don't ask)  
Colonel Sparks: Jason Novak  
Other Rodents: Random people off the street  
The Chemical Jar: On "loan" from the school chemistry room. Please don't tell anyone! I plan on giving it back next episode!

SPECIAL THANKS TO:  
The number 5 (It took me 5 Koolaid Jammers to summon enough ambition to finish this chapter!)  
Zamba Sabertooth (For her devoted fan-person-ness and constant help!)  
Riptor Velochi (Because he's cool)  
Cherry flavored Koolaid Jammers  
My Uncle Karl (For letting me use his laptop and putting up with me on a sugar high!)  
The letter Q (For QUIET!!!)  
Jasper the friendly cat (For his impossibly cute Meow!)

And finally, readers like you!

Willow: Hey there! It's been a while since I've updated this story! Well, Black Plague is officially up and running again, and chapter 5 is on the way! **Sniffles** I almost lost hope after last chapter, but the constant little push my friends have been giving me to get this chapter out really boosted my spirits! Thank you all so much! And remember, everyone, to Read and Review! Without reviews, I don't feel that anyone is reading my story anymore and then updates don't come along very often... So always remember to review!


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